Inmates at Cork Prison subjected to 'degrading treatment' due to overcrowding, report states

Overcrowding in Cork Prison meant inmates were subjected to “degrading treatment”, an inspector said two years ago in a recently-published report — however, the number of prisoners without beds in the prison has increased fivefold since then.

In March 2023, an unannounced inspection was carried out in Cork Prison which was experiencing “unprecedented overcrowding at the time”, the inspector said.

The inspector noted that some cells designed for double occupancy were accommodating three people, with one person allocated a mattress to sleep on the cell floor.

People held in these conditions were not provided with the minimum international personal living space standard of four square metres per person.

Some prisoners on restricted regimes were held in these conditions for large portions of the day without access to purposeful activity, with 81% of people on protection surveyed reporting that they spent less than two hours out of their cell each day.

Contrary to the requirements of international human rights law, prisoners not convicted were also accommodated in the same cells as convicted prisoners.

The inspector said: 

“Overcrowded cells combined with limited time out-of-cell for prisoners on protection regimes meant that people being held in these conditions were being subjected to degrading treatment.”

In March 2023, there were between 283 and 311 people in custody in Cork Prison, which has a capacity of 296 — the population was below this maximum capacity amount for 40% of the month.

The prison has been consistently over capacity in the two years since this inspection was carried out, reaching a high of 372 people in custody February this year. There were 355 in custody yesterday, meaning 59 inmates were sleeping on the floor.

During the inspection, a “serious concern” with the operation of the call bell system was identified, resulting in the chief inspector issuing an Immediate Action Notification (IAN).

The call bell system permitted only one emergency cell call to be made at a time, despite there being more than 50 cells on some of the prison landings.

“The dangers of this situation were obvious, as a genuine emergency call could go unremarked and unanswered for a critical period of time, leading to a variety of avoidable harms, up to and including the death of a person living in the prison”, the inspector said. 

The director general immediately responded to this IAN, including by sending a technical team the following day.

In December 2023, a follow-up visit took place and found that the mitigation measures were working well.

The fact that cells in Cork Prison were equipped with showers was named as a positive, but the inspector said that the shower and toilet facilities were not fully partitioned from the remainder of the cell, meaning prisoners used the toilet in the presence of each other, and also ate their meals in close proximity to the toilet.

The overall environment of Cork Prison was described as “welcoming and clean”, and the school was also noted as being a very positive place, with excellent collaboration between the school, in-prison services, and outside agencies. However, there was “a lack of other purposeful activity”, with “very limited work training opportunities available”. 59% of prisoners did not have a job.

Prisoners not engaged with school or work did not have access to five hours of structured activity on five days each week, which did not align with the Irish prison rules.

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said that it welcomed the publication of the annual report, and reiterated that the Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the courts, meaning it “has no control over the numbers committed into custody at any given time”.

They added: “The Irish Prison Service is working closely with officials in the Department of Justice to take steps to ensure a safe working environment for staff and the safety and security of people in custody.”