Conditions at Mountjoy Prison have been described as “shocking” and could be considered “degrading”, a damning new report has found.
An unannounced inspection found prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor, pushed up against toilets in some cells. The findings of inspection of the Dublin prison late last year were outlined in the Office of the Inspector of Prisons Annual Report.
The report said a team visited the overcrowded jail in November and December 2022, in the first unannounced full inspection in years. The inspectors were “shocked to find that a significant number of people were being obliged to sleep on mattresses on the floors of cells designed for single occupancy”.
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The report stated: “The size and design of many cells meant mattresses had to be wedged at an angle next to the in-cell lavatories.” The report found an average of 38 men per day were being kept in these conditions.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Mark Kelly said: “These conditions could be considered degrading.” He added that Mountjoy Prison for men is not the only prison unable to offer a proper bed to everyone in custody, warning the situation could worsen with a projected rise in prison population unless urgent action is taken.
He added: “The dramatic situation in Mountjoy will become a grave problem for the prison system as a whole.”
Mr Kelly suggested imposing an enforceable ceiling on numbers who can be held in each prison. He warned: “The need to tackle overcrowding through interventions is now more acute than ever.”
The annual report also found that the prisoner complaints system is not fit for purpose. Mr Kelly wrote to then Minister for Justice Simon Harris asking about “any measures to manage the number being held”.
New Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she has approved measures to reduce capacity pressures.
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