ALTHOUGH Mountjoy prison in Dublin gets most publicity for overcrowding, Cork prison is as telling a monument to the surge in crime and the inadequacies of official planning in recent years.
The Cork jail has a prisoner population of 275 in a space designed for 172. In practice this means two prisoners in most of the single person cells and crowded corridors during meal times, in a prison which feels ready to burst at the seams.
Part of the problem is that Cork prison is set on much a small site - behind Collins Barracks on the north side of the city. All its buildings are crammed into this space, each attached to the next or separated by only a very narrow gap. On a tour of the prison, daylight and fresh air are rare intruders.
Yesterday's tour was the latest of the prison "open days" for the media, organised by the Department of Justice.
Cork prison has a reputation among offenders as the toughest regime in the State. The governor, Frank MacCarthy, says it is no tougher than anywhere else.
"But where you have such over crowding in such numbers, you have to have discipline," he says.
At least in one area, Cork has what is acknowledged as the harshest regime in the prison system.
This is Unit D, known to prisoners as the punishment block. Here inmates can be deprived of all privileges, including telephone calls, visits and cigarettes - sanctions not imposed in similar units, such as the separation block in Mountjoy.
Those in Unit D eat and exercise separately from the other prisoners, but may be in their cells for up to 20 hours a day.
According to the governor, this unit is for prisoners who are so volatile that they represent a threat to themselves or others.
Among those there yesterday was Justin Godson, who last week took another prisoner hostage at Wheatfield.
Godson said yesterday he did so because he was unable to get treatment for drug addiction at Wheatfield.
He had held the hostage at knifepoint for two or three hours, with a noose around his neck, until he was overpowered by prison officers in riot gear.
"I just grabbed whoever was easiest," he said. "Sure he knew I wasn't going to hurt him."
Prisoners who assault staff in Cork and other jails generally end up in the D Unit, usually for two months.
Governor MacCarthy is aware that in the past prisoners in D Unit have claimed to have been beaten up by staff.
There was a series of complaints about two years ago, he says. "I personally believe they were organised".
Gardai investigated the complaints and "there was no member of staff ever charged with any impropriety in relation to the D Unit".
He adds that a number of High Court judges have visited the unit, after prisoners complained of being deprived of their rights there, and the judges left satisfied that all was in order.
The governor and staff say Cork has only a relatively minor drug problem. Most seizures are of cannabis and tablets. But two measures stemmed the flow of drugs into the prison.
No physical contact - such as a kiss or hug - is allowed in the visiting area. Such contact can lead to visits taking place only behind screens.
In addition a wire mesh has been placed on top of the recreation yard, which has a boundary wall near a public area.
Before the netting was in place, several packages of drugs a day would be thrown over the wall by people outside.
"If they landed at either end of the yard we might be able to get to them first," a prison officer said. "If they landed in the middle, where all the prisoners would be milling about, you wouldn't have a chance."
Cork was previously a barracks and military detention centre, taken over as a civic prison in 1972. Then it had only two cell blocks.
A third, and the D Unit, were built later, along with a school building and recreation areas. However, like the old blocks, the new cells do not have toilets, so "slopping out" from a basin is part of the morning routine.
In recent years the Department of Justice bought a field beside the prison for a juvenile detention centre which was never built.
Now a "visitor centre" is planned for it - with a large waiting area, toilets and snacks - for those who have come long distances to see prisoners.
Cork's prisoners (including 19 awaiting trial) are mainly from the city and county area, with about 16 each from Dublin and Limerick and a few from other counties. Rape and other sexual offences, robbery, drugs and assault are the most common crimes.
There are 220 staff, along with 13 part time and nine permanent teachers offering academic and vocational courses.
The prison does not offer methadone to drug addicts in line with Southern Health Board policy, librium or other drugs are preferred for detoxification programmes.
Apart from the 275 in custody there are 73 on temporary release, who sign in weekly, and 111 are "unlawfully at large".
This last group seem to be among the great saviours of the prison system - if they gave themselves up, there would be nowhere to put them.