Record high as over 100 inmates have no bed at Cork Prison

The number of people without beds in Cork Prison has surpassed 100 for the first time ever, with 397 people incarcerated in the 296-bed correctional facility yesterday.

The figures, which represent more than one in four inmates now without a bed, are up 18.5% on this day last year, and are the latest in a series of new records for the prison since the start of July.

Cork TDs have criticised the consistently over-capacity figures, with Labour TD Eoghan Kenny saying that since he was elected in November, he has not seen any progress made in this area.

The Cork North-Central TD told The Echo: 

“These figures show that there are significant issues within our prison service here in Cork.”

“Since the beginning of the Dáil term, I’m yet to see any significant implementation of changes to public services in Cork, particularly from Minister [Jim] O’Callaghan, the minister for justice. This has been a systemic issue for many years now. I’m calling on Minister O’Callaghan to intervene now and create a plan, in the short term at least, for this serious matter.”

Social Democrats TD for Cork South Central, Pádraig Rice, told The Echo: “This level of prison overcrowding is outrageous and dangerous — not just for prisoners, but for prison officers too.

“It fuels violence, drug use, and has hugely negative impacts on people’s mental health. 

"It also means that rehabilitation for prisoners is virtually impossible — as it limits access to educational classes and other supports. This creates a vicious circle of more recidivism and more former prisoners ending up back in prison — further exacerbating the problem.

“This crisis has gotten steadily worse and has been utterly ignored by this Government, which has done almost nothing to address it. What will it take before we see some action?”

The latest breaking of the record comes as regular courts have not sat since Thursday of last week, with numbers usually going down during this timeframe. Mr O’Callaghan confirmed earlier this year that some people awaiting deportation had been placed in Cork Prison prior to their removal from the State.