Limerick women's prison, built in 1816, is to be closed from next year and the women housed in a new block adjoining the existing men's prison. Dr Valerie Bresnihan of the Irish Penal Reform Trust said the facilities in the current C wing were inadequate and inhumane.
Prisons must be as dedicated to rehabilitating prisoners as they were to keeping them locked up, she added. The new wing will have 11 cells for women with in-cell sanitation.