THE NUMBER of prisoners in Irish jails has passed 4,000 for the first time in the history of the State, new Irish Prison Services figures reveal.
The figure does not include the estimated 500 prisoners on indefinite periods of temporary release in order to ease overcrowding.
News of the record numbers of inmates comes three weeks after the inspector of prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, presented a report on Mountjoy Prison to the Government, warning lives were being put at risk due to chronic overcrowding in the Dublin jail.
Judge Reilly was so concerned he brought forward the publication of his report.
The leading member of the Government-appointed prison-visiting committee network, Stephen Langton, recently expressed serious concern on overcrowding.
Prisoner numbers reached 4,009 last Friday. This is despite very few committals during the summer months when courts do not sit as normal. The fact the numbers are so high so quickly into the new law term indicates that overcrowding is almost certain to worsen considerably in the period to Christmas.
The 4,009 figure is only marginally higher than the prison system’s official bed capacity of 3,947. However, some of these beds are in Portlaoise Prison, where 120 beds are empty because criminal gangs and dissidents are segregated.
The bed capacity also includes bunk beds, which turn two-person cells into four-person cells, and mattresses placed on floors for inmates to sleep in prison showering, basement and reception areas.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust, which obtained the figures, said the imprisonment of more than 4,000 people for the first time in Ireland was a “watershed moment because the rapid rate of increase would soon be out of control”.
Trust executive director Liam Herrick said the prison service needed to set “safe custody limits” in each jail. Temporary release should be used to ensure these were not exceeded.
In the longer term, community-based sanctions – such as drug treatment and community service – needed to be developed. It was also time for the judiciary to stop jailing people for not paying fines or for very minor offences, Mr Herrick added.
The Irish Prison Service said it had no option but to accept all committals from the courts. It could not use a “no vacancies sign”.
In a statement, the service said increased Garda success had seen an increase of 25 per cent in committals under sentence last year. The numbers jailed over the past 12 years had increased by 65 per cent.
Sentences were longer and more people were being refused bail, thus spending time in jail awaiting trial.
In response, 100 prison spaces were opened in Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon, last month. A further 400 spaces will be provided when building projects already under way are completed at Portlaoise, Wheatfield and Mountjoy prisons.
In the long term, the planned Thornton Hall jail in north Co Dublin would accommodate 2,080 prisoners.