THE IRISH Prison Service is considerably underestimating the extent of overcrowding in many jails in the Republic, according to a comparison with research carried out by the Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly.
Critics of the prison service have long suggested it was massaging overcrowding figures by putting mattresses on floors in cells and basement areas and bunk beds into cells and claiming the extra spaces created as official bed capacity.
Now Judge Reilly has visited the prisons and has formulated his own figures for bed capacity.
These indicate the Prison Service is artificially increasing the bed capacity in the prisons to make it appear as if there is enough space to house all of the inmates in those jails.
When his bed capacity figures and those formulated by the Irish Prison Service are compared with the number of people in custody on June 20th last, it becomes clear the extent to which the prison service is underestimating overcrowding.
For example, there were 305 inmates in Cork Prison on June 20th, according to the latest prisoner population figures available from the Department of Justice.
The Irish Prison Service claims the bed capacity at the prison is 272, meaning overcrowding of 12 per cent on that date.
However, Judge Reilly has determined the bed capacity to be 146, meaning the prison was being run some 109 per cent over its full capacity on June 20th; more than double capacity.
Judge Reilly’s calculation for overcrowding at the prison is nine times higher than the Irish Prison Service’s estimate.
In Mountjoy men’s prison, where there were 583 inmates housed on June 20th last, the prison service claims a bed capacity of 590, meaning the prison was not full on the night and had 1 per cent of its capacity to spare.
However, Judge Reilly has found a bed capacity in the prison of 540.
His figures suggest that on June 20th, the prison was full and operating some 8 per cent above its full capacity.
The most acute difference between the figures, obtained from the Department of Justice, relates to Limerick’s female prison.
There were 35 prisoners in the jail on June 20th, according to the department’s figures.
The Irish Prison Service claims a bed capacity of 34, meaning one bed or 3 per cent of the jail’s capacity, was free on the day in question.
However, Judge Reilly has found a bed capacity of just 10 in the jail, meaning it was operating at 250 per cent above full capacity on June 20th.
In only three of the 15 jails in the system does Judge Reilly agree with the Irish Prison Service’s bed capacity figures. These are Loughan House open jail in Co Cavan, Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow and the training unit in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.
In 2001 there were 12,127 committals to prison by the courts. Last year that figure grew to 17,179.
These varied from sentences of a number of days to life.
In 2000 the average prison population on any one day was 2,919.
On June 22nd last, there were 4,433 people in prison.
