The governor of Mountjoy Prison has said he is grappling with an “overcrowding crisis”, with 922 inmates in a prison with maximum official capacity for 755 people.
David Tracey said the crisis is replicated across the prison system, with Limerick’s male and female prisons, Cork Prison, and Dóchas Women’s Prison also severely overcrowded.
To cram prisoners in, Mr Tracey said they have installed 114 bunk beds into small single cells and squeezed a further 82 mattresses onto floors of other single cells.
All the single cells have an open toilet.
“A prison should be 90% capacity to give you wriggle room to manage for incidents, but we are at 120%,” Mr Tracey said.
“We are in a crisis here with overcrowding. And, it’s not just Mountjoy, it’s Cork — they all are.”
