'Regress': Ireland's two women’s prisons 'consistently the most overcrowded', report finds

THE IRISH PRISON system has regressed when it comes to dealing with overcrowding, particularly in women’s prisons.

However, Irish prisons are “regressing” when it comes to five of the 28 standards that are examined in PIPS 2022.Progress has been made in four standards, but there has been no change in nine of the standards examined. It added: “The pandemic response demonstrated that it is possible to fast-track change and showed that the reasons often given for delays in the implementation of ambitious and progressive policy are unconvincing.”

In December 2022, occupancy rates in Limerick Female Prison was 154%, and only in January 2022 was occupancy below 100%. In its PIPS 2021 report, the IRPT set a short term target for the Department of Justice to take “specific measures to address why short sentences continue to be handed down to women in place of community-based alternatives”.The report also cited Traveller women as “a minority within a minority” who are “significantly overrepresented in prison”.Though Travellers represent 0.7% of the national population, they account for 22% of female prisoners and 15% of male prisoners.

The situation has caused alarm for those working in the sector, with the IRPT noting international research suggesting that between 50-60% of women in prison have experienced physical or sexual abuse. Meanwhile, a recent study among women in prison found that 78% were mothers, and of these, 73% had children under 18.

Only one complaint, out of a total of 235 complaints by female prisoners in the Dóchas, were upheld between 2018 and April 2021.

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