Prison Service fighting 'losing battle' against overcrowding
2nd December 2025
The article outlines the severe and escalating overcrowding across Ireland’s prisons, echoing the findings of IPRT’s Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) 2024 report. Executive Director Saoirse Brady stresses that expanding prison spaces will not resolve the crisis, as new beds are quickly filled while conditions and rights deteriorate.
IPRT highlights that the prison system is now operating at breaking point, with record levels of overcrowding, rising violence, hundreds sleeping on mattresses beside toilets, and a growing population with unmet mental health and addiction needs. The organisation warns that the State is failing to uphold basic dignity and that prisons are increasingly absorbing the failures of wider social and health services.
With 77% of sentences lasting 12 months or less and the use of community sanctions continuing to decline, IPRT calls for urgent implementation and funding of non-custodial alternatives and community-based supports.
