No end in sight' for chronic overcrowding 'crisis' at Cork Prison
20th July 2025
In this interview, IPRT expressed concerns about chronic overcrowding in Cork Prison, as it breaks records for the number of people in custody. The day before the interview, the prison hit a new record for overcrowding, for the eighth time in July. A total of 389 people were incarcerated there, or 131% of the 296 beds.
Speaking to The Echo, IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady described it as “a crisis situation where nearly one in four people are now expected to sleep on a mattress on the floor of a shared cell”.
“Records continue to be broken almost weekly, if not daily, with no end in sight,” said Ms Brady. “The mooted new prison, which will be years in the making, will not solve this crisis.”
In the recently published Prison Visiting Committee annual report, the Cork committee described 2023 as “very challenging”, yet Ms Brady says “conditions have deteriorated drastically since then”.
Related items:
- Lack of clarity over budget funding for addiction and mental health supports in prisons
- IPRT presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration on Pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme: Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025
- Children's Ombudsman calls to extend youth justice sanctions to adults under 24
- Prisons today Alternative sentences for most prisoners? Podcast Interview on Near FM with Saoirse Brady
- Niamh McCormack spoke to Angela Noone-Faull of CRCfm in Mayo on The Chatroom,
