Number of inmates in Cork Prison reaches record high 

Cork Prison reached a new high of 410 people in custody on Monday, meaning 114 inmates did not have a bed.

The record comes as new data shows nearly €90,000 has been spent on buying mattresses for the prison since 2023.

The previous record number of inmates, 404, was hit at the end of December. The record before that was 403, set in August and reached again just before Christmas.

Cork Prison has capacity for 296 prisoners, but had 350 for the majority of last year.

The current overcrowding represents 139% capacity, with 28% of those in custody not having a bed, making Cork the most overcrowded men’s prison in Ireland yesterday.

Approximately 1,000 prisoners across Ireland do not currently have a bed.

There were 5,777 people in custody nationwide on Monday and only 4,718 bed spaces, representing 123% capacity overall and limiting the option of inter-prison transfers from Cork to reduce overcrowding.

Courts resumed

The figure comes as regular court service resumed on Monday after the Christmas and New Year break.

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) said that it must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the courts

“As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.”

Mattresses on the floors are used when beds are not available. The IPS has spent €89,902.64 on purchasing 654 mattresses for Cork Prison since the start of 2023, new data has shown.

Information provided to The Echo, on foot of a Freedom of Information request, showed that the prison service purchased 232 mattresses in 2023, at a cost of €31,435.29; 205 in 2024, at a cost of €27,776.85; and 217 in 2025, to the end of last November, at a cost of €30,690.50.

In 2023, the average mattress costs were €2,619.60 per month, falling to €2,314.74 in 2024, but rising to €2,790.04 last year, the highest average cost to date.

The higher figure in 2025 is partially due to an increase in mattress costs: In 2023 and 2024, the prison service spent €135.50 per mattress, but, this year, the cost rose to €141.43.

The IPS’s 2023 annual report notes that the prison service disposes of approximately 1,200 mattresses per year, while a European Commission report in to the IPS’s mattresses notes that they have a life cycle of two years or less, so each prison requires the removal of discarded mattresses on a regular basis.