More than 1,000 prisoners are being crammed into cells on bunk beds or mattresses on the floor and many are forced to use toilets in front of each other.
The overcrowding has led to heightened tensions and disputes among prisoners which is endangering staff.
A 40% increase in injury cases from prison officers in the last two years has been blamed on the overcrowding and drug smuggling, which is causing fights, resulting in injuries to officers when they break them up.
Last week, the inspector of prisons Mark Kelly said in a report on Cloverhill Remand Prison that “violence was the inevitable result” of overcrowded cells, with inmates subject to degrading conditions of an unscreened toilet.