Press Release: IPRT says urgent government action is long overdue as the Inspector of Prisons’ 2025 report exposes worsening inhuman and degrading conditions

9th July 2026

IPRT today expresses deep concern at the findings of the Office of the Inspector of Prisons’ (OIP) Annual Report 2025, which describes the unacceptable conditions faced by people in custody in Ireland as a “national disgrace”. Chronic overcrowding continues to worsen year on year, placing severe pressure on prison regimes, safety, dignity, and basic living conditions for people in prison.  
The OIP’s report outlines the Inspector’s findings across inspections carried out in 2025, including Mountjoy Prison (Follow Up Inspection, 28 April–2 May 2025), Wheatfield Prison (General Inspection, 19 June–2 July 2025), Castlerea Prison (General Inspection, 8–16 September 2025), and the suspended thematic review on Ageing in Prison (commenced 13 November 2025).  

IPRT Executive Director, Saoirse Brady, responded saying:  
“IPRT welcomes the publication today of the OIP’s Annual Report for 2025 and acknowledges the vital role the Inspectorate plays as an independent body overseeing human rights compliance and conditions in Irish prisons. 
This year’s report sets out an increasingly stark picture of the prison system. Severe and worsening overcrowding has pushed the population close to 6,000 for a capacity of under 4,800, leaving hundreds of people sleeping on mattresses on floors beside unpartitioned toilets — conditions that are clearly inhuman and degrading. Reports from Wheatfield and Castlerea prisons speak to a lack of access to basic hygiene facilities, with hundreds of people expected to use a handful of showers”.  

Extreme overcrowding and deplorable, inhuman and degrading conditions 
The impact of overcrowding permeates every aspect of prison life, with severe consequences for living conditions, access to basic hygiene, and the availability of essential services. Across the three prisons inspected, the number of people sleeping on mattresses on floors had increased significantly in recent years. In Mountjoy Prison, capacity increased from 750 people in 2022 to 986 in April 2025, operating at 122 per cent capacity with 90 people sleeping on mattresses on floors. Castlerea Prison was at 119 per cent capacity during the inspection with 35 people sleeping on mattresses on the floor while Wheatfield Prison was at 110 per cent capacity with 38 men sleeping on floors. Standards of cleanliness and repair were variable.  

Ms Brady continued: 
“It is clear from the OIP’s report that overcrowding not only denies people in prison privacy and basic dignity in many instances, it also restricts access to essential services and purposeful activities. In Wheatfield, reduced staffing led to staggered unlock protocols, meaning people spent longer periods locked back in their cells. In Mountjoy, out-of-cell time was limited, with regular school closures and restricted access to the gym. Medical appointments were cancelled due to staff shortages. The overriding impact is a system where overcrowding undermines safety, wellbeing, and the ability to deliver even basic regimes”.  

Ms Brady added:  
“While the Inspectorate does not explicitly attribute the high levels of violence in Wheatfield to overcrowding, the findings point to a prison operating under significant strain. Difficult living conditions, including cramped accommodation, and the absence of any formal risk-assessment process for cell allocation or cell sharing, are all factors that can heighten tensions and reduce safety”. 

Suspension of Thematic Review 
IPRT is concerned that the ability of the Office of the Inspector of Prisons to carry out independent inspections, which is central to the role of the Inspectorate, was obstructed, leading the Office to issue a Statutory Notice of Concern, pausing its thematic review of older people in prison in November 2025.  

Ms. Brady said:  
“IPRT is deeply concerned by the suspension of a thematic inspection on older people in prison following attempts to limit the Inspectorate’s operational autonomy during inspections, a development that raises questions about transparency and accountability within the prison system. Previously, Inspectors do not appear to have required an escort so we would question why there has been an apparent change in procedure and would urge the both the IPS and the OIP to find a resolution so this important thematic inspection can be completed in the near future”.  

IPRT welcomes reduction in numbers of Deaths in Custody 
In 2025, 14 deaths in custody were recorded, representing a 55 per cent decrease from 2024, when a record number of 31 deaths in custody were recorded.  

Ms Brady stated:  
“The significant reduction in deaths in custody in 2025 is extremely welcome, and the OIP acknowledges the steps taken by the IPS to detect and reduce the number of people internally concealing drugs. However, early figures for 2026 underline that progress cannot be taken for granted and cannot mask the urgent need for decisive, coordinated action to address the structural failures identified. The failure to implement a prior OIP recommendation to provide basic life support training leaves people in custody at ongoing risk.” 

Failures in prisoner complaints system  
The Irish Prison Service complaints system has been under review since 2019, yet has still not been delivered. The OIP Annual Report describes the current system as “defective” and notes that the Ombudsman, the Director General of the IPS, and the OIP have been working together closely on developing a new and improved system.  

Speaking on the inadequate complaints system, Ms Brady said: 
“Persistent weaknesses in the prison complaints system mean that even years after a commitment to overhaul it entirely, it is still not fit for purpose and people in custody have limited access to making a complaint in the first place and no effective remedy to address their concerns. The OIP’s surveys with people in prison clearly demonstrate the total lack of confidence in making a complaint which is even more concerning given the deplorable conditions in which people are currently living”. 

Need to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) 
Ireland first signed OPCAT in 2007 but has yet to ratify it, meaning it is the only EU and Council of Europe Member State not to have done so. OPCAT establishes a system of regular visits to all places of detention by independent domestic bodies (known as ‘National Preventive Mechanisms’ (NPMs) and by the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). The purpose of these visits is to identify situations that may risk torture or ill-treatment occurring, and to proactively address these through constructive dialogue with the relevant state agencies, NPMs, and the SPT. 

Ms. Brady said: 
“Ireland’s continued failure to ratify OPCAT and designate the OIP as the National Preventive Mechanism remains a significant human rights gap. While we note and welcome that the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill is listed for priority publication, 2026 must be the year that we see that legislation enacted paving the way for OPCAT ratification”.   
 
ENDS  
For all media enquiries, or to arrange an interview with Saoirse Brady, IPRT Executive Director, please contact Siobhán Tracey, IPRT Communications and Campaigns Lead on:    
 M: +353 86 043 3060        E: communications@iprt.ie      W:  www.iprt.ie  
Photo of Saoirse Brady attached. 
NOTES FOR EDITORS:  
1.    Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) | www.iprt.ie  
IPRT is Ireland's leading non-governmental organisation campaigning for the rights of everyone in prison and the progressive reform of Irish penal policy, with prison as a last resort.  
2.    Prison figures: As of Thursday July 2026, Irish prisons were operating at 122 per cent capacity, with 5,817 in prison custody with 520 people sleeping on mattresses on the floor.  
3.    Office of the Inspector of Prisons Annual Report 2025. Published today, available here.