Prisoners get temporary release in effort to manage overcrowding at Cork Prison

The Irish Prison Service is temporarily releasing prisoners in a bid to manage overcrowding in Cork Prison, with 107 people left without beds and the situation expected to worsen as courts return from recess.

Cork Prison has a bed capacity of 296 but last Monday it reached its previous overcrowding record of 403, operating at 136% capacity.

 There were 107 prisoners without beds, with 99 sleeping on mattresses, meaning eight did not have even a mattress on which to sleep. A further 55 prisoners were out on temporary release.

On Tuesday the number imprisoned dropped to 391, or 132% capacity, meaning 95 were without beds, while nine were without mattresses. Some 63 prisoners were out on temporary release.

The number in the prison on Wednesday was 381, 129% capacity, leaving 85 without beds, two of them without mattresses. Some 68 were on temporary release. These figures remained unchanged on Thursday.

By Friday, the number of inmates had increased by one to 382, leaving 86 without beds, with three on the floor. The number out on temporary release on Friday was the highest all week, at 72.

Short term solution

A source in the Irish Prison Service told The Echo that Cork Prison is using temporary release as a rolling short-term solution to ongoing accommodation issues, but staff are concerned that overcrowding will worsen once the courts return this month from summer recess.

Last month, Colm Burke, Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, said a major contributory factor to prison overcrowding was a failure to take into account the effects of recent additional appointments to the judiciary.

“It is a major challenge for the prison service to provide spaces in view of the fact that processing of criminal cases has been expedited, therefore there are more cases coming forward for trial in an earlier timeframe and unfortunately, sufficient planning has not been put in place in respect of the number of prison spaces,” Mr Burke told The Echo.

No control

An Irish Prison Service spokesperson told The Echo last week that it must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the courts and as such has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.

“Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, officials in the Irish Prison Service make every effort to deal with this through temporary release,” they said.

“The legislative basis for temporary release is set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003.

 “Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case-by-case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made.”