Overcrowding forces prisoners to 'double up '

Overcrowding in the State’s prisons has forced hundreds of prisoners to double up in cells, figures released today show.

The figures released in a written parliamentary question show that prisons in the Republic have an occupancy rate of 105 per cent, with 3,790 inmates living in only 3,611 prison places.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said that “given the serious pressure that the Irish Prison Service has been experiencing during the last 12 to 18 months, in 2008 it became necessary to introduce additional contingency accommodation through the doubling up of cells in Mountjoy, Wheatfield, Cloverhill, Midlands and Arbour Hill Prisons and in the Training Unit. This provided 180 temporary bed spaces.

“As the pressure shows no sign of abating the Irish Prison Service recently decided to increase their capacities through the doubling up of further cells, thus creating 200 additional temporary bed spaces which will come on stream shortly,” he added in reply to Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan.

The figures show that the Dóchas Centre is 27% over capacity with 108 inmates housed in the prison that has 85 spaces. Mountjoy has 633 inmates while its total capacity is 540, 17 per cent over capacity.

Only the high-security Portlaoise prison, which is used for paramilitaries and organised crime figures convicted in the Special Criminal Court, is operating at under capacity. It has room for 210 but only has 105 prisoners, according to the figures.

Mr Flanagan said in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, prisoners were sleeping on the floors of cells.

“Thirteen out of fifteen of the State’s prisons are packed beyond capacity. This is not just a matter of prisoner comfort levels, as some might think. It is about having prisons that are safe and having prisons that are functioning,” Mr Flanagan said.

He said the Government had refused to move on legislation that would allow fines defaulters to pay off their debts incrementally rather than being thrown into prison.

“We are now paying a big price for that inaction. It costs €90,000 per prisoner per year to keep these people in jail. We now have the crazy situation where a majority of gangland murderers are free to walk the streets while one third of the prison population is made up of fines defaulters.”

He said a recent riot in Mountjoy was “undoubtedly fuelled by overcrowding.”