Inmates at Cork Prison are sleeping on mattresses on the floor because of serious overcrowding, it was revealed yesterday. Up to 270 inmates are being housed, even though the facility only has a design capacity for 160.
Nine low-risk prisoners were last week given temporary release to make way for new inmates.
Up to 12 new inmates arrived in the prison last Friday night to find there wasn't enough accommodation for them.
As a result, some had to sleep on the floors of cells on mattresses.
Concern has been expressed that the overcrowding is leading to a return of the "revolving door system", in which prisoners are quickly freed to accommodate new inmates.
However, Cork Prison governor David Cowman said yesterday that the overcrowding situation at the facility had been a problem for the last 20 years.
"This happens from time to time. We get an influx of prisoners. This is nothing new. People who are a major danger are not given temporary release. It is not just overcrowding - people are given temporary release for family occasions."
Last November, a report published by the Irish Prisons Inspectorate revealed that Cork Prison, with an average of 269 prisoners, is the most overcrowded jail in the prison system.
The report highlighted that €5.5 million had been spent on plans for new buildings that now appear not to be going ahead, since a new prison to replace Cork Prison is to be built.
The proposed new prison, on Spike Island, Co Cork, will hold 450 inmates and will open in three years.
The facility will include separate male and female sections, as well as one for juvenile offenders.
Last May, at the Prison Officers' Association annual conference, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell acknowledged the need to replace Cork Prison with a modern facility with the full range of services for inmates, as well as predominantly single-cell accommodation with proper sanitation facilities.
As part of the Spike Island redevelopment plans, a new bridge will be built to the island, which currently can only be accessed by boat.
Mr McDowell told the prison officers that the jail was just one element of a wider plan to modernise the entire prison system.
A sister of an inmate at Cork Prison who had to sleep on a mattress said she was "appalled" by what she had heard about conditions at the facility.
"My brother went in to prison last week and he ended up sleeping on a mattress in a cell with two other guys.
"The urinal in the room was right next to his head. It is a rotten, rotten situation. It is inhumane. I understand that people have to be punished, but this is like something from another age."
The woman, who declined to be named, said her brother was very distressed about being packed in to a cramped prison.
"It is ridiculous in this day and age in 2006 to have conditions such as these. My mum in particular was horrified to hear what he had to say about the place."