2025 ‘year of regress’ in jails – report
2025 was a “year of regress” in the Irish prison system, in which the dark cloud of overcrowding permeated every aspect of prison life, a new report states.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) released the eighth Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) report by Martha Lewis, on the same day (1 October) that hundreds of offenders were released in Britain as part of a government plan to reduce prison overcrowding there.
Only one of the 35 standards assessed in the research – investigations into deaths in custody – was found to have improved since 2024.
The report found that 21 standards regressed, including safety and security, where prisoner-on-prisoner assaults increased by 37%.
found that 21 standards regressed, including safety and security, where prisoner-on-prisoner assaults increased by 37%.
Standard eight (self-sanitation) showed that 65% of prisoners could not use toilets in private.
“The standards we look at range from time out of cell to access to education, family contact, and use of force and restraints,” Lewis said at the report launch.
“In 2025, we saw less of these being reached than we’ve ever recorded since starting PIPS in 2016.”
Several of the standards regressed for the second year in a row, which Lewis said was “quite concerning”.
Among these was Standard three, safe custody limits.
In 2025, prisons across the estate were operating on an average of 117% capacity, the report found.
“On the last day of 2025, Irish prisons were operating at 122% capacity, with over 600 individuals sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor of cells they were sharing with at least one other person,” it states.
Between 2024 and 2025, there was significant regression in providing single-cell accommodation for individuals in custody.
The number of individuals sharing a cell with three or more people almost doubled to 416, while the number of those sharing a cell with two others went up by 67% to 810.
“Operating at such unsafe levels is not only dangerous but represents a failure by the State to uphold its human-rights obligations for those in its custody,” the PIPS report notes.
The IPRT decided to focus on mental health as the spotlight issue in this report as one of the myriad aspects of prison life exacerbated by overcrowding.
“What we found is that it’s mainly a two-pronged issue. There are people in need of forensic psychiatric care in prison who are not being provided with it because the Central Mental Hospital [CMH] doesn’t have capacity to receive them.
“So, while these people wait for a place in the CMH to become available, their condition in prison is deteriorating,” Lewis explained.
“And on the other hand, there are individuals in prison who require access to a psychologist and are not getting it, and, similarly, their condition is deteriorating. So, people are in prison not receiving the support they need, and getting worse as a result, and both arms of this issue are exacerbated by severe overcrowding.”
Lewis noted that this issue has been raised repeatedly since 2010 without sufficient implementation of recommendations.