Saoirse Brady speaks to News at One in an interview given as part of coverage of Irish Prisons Annual Report 2024 Saoilaunch
4th September 2025
In the interview, Saoirse highlighted that:
- Prison must be the sanction of last resort;
- Current overcrowding levels and the use of mattresses on floors are an unacceptable breach of human dignity;
- With 77% of sentences 12 months or less, prison appears to be overused for less serious offences.
- At nearly €100,000 per prison place per year, this approach comes at enormous financial and human cost.
Saoirse emphasised that we cannot build our way out of this crisis. Instead, Ireland must rebalance investment into:
Related items:
- Prison overcrowding group to meet after capacity crisis warning
- Continued reliance on ‘single separation' of children at Oberstown detention centre
- IPRT Submission to the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights on the fourth Universal Periodic Review of Ireland
- Crime and class Who really ends up behind bars in Ireland?
- Inmates still earn just 50c for a day's work in Irish prisons
