The Irish Penal Reform Trust, Ireland’s leading voice for penal reform, will today host an Open Public Forum, entitled Exploding Prisoner Numbers – Causes, Effects and Solutions. The event, which is chaired by the Inspector Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, will outline the causes of rocketing prison numbers in Ireland, and identify practical solutions to the [...]

Last night the number of prisoners in custody in Mountjoy Prison reached 691, which is 151 more than the maximum safe custody limit of 540 recommended by the Inspector of Prisons in 2009. Prisoners were accommodated in the same beds in the basement of Mountjoy, sleeping head to foot. The Irish Penal Reform Trust, who [...]

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has today expressed deep concern at the resignation of Kathleen McMahon, Governor of the Dóchas Centre.  The issues cited by the Governor on her resignation are worrying in the extreme, and IPRT is calling on both prison management and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to take [...]

I’m reposting this in light of the resignation of Kathleen McMahon as governor of the Dóchas Centre and her highly critical comments about the Irish Prison Service in her letter of resignation. In today’s Irish Times report on her resignation it mentions a chilling aspect, about how the Irish prison service is developing policy based [...]

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the Cabinet decision to increase the use of Community Service Orders. This follows recommendations made by the Probation Service to greatly extend the number of community service places; it also answers consistent calls from IPRT for a greater use of community sanctions in dealing with less serious offences.
Against [...]

4,132 IN PRISON CUSTODY IN IRELAND
The number of prisoners in custody in Irish prisons was 4,132 on Monday 1st Feb, 2010. This is an increase of 11% on the numbers of custody the same week in 2009. (These figures do not include those out on temporary release.) This acceleration in prison population growth, in an [...]

New report aims to inform best practice in the detention of children in conflict with the law
The Irish Penal Reform Trust has today launched a new report: Detention of Children in Ireland: International Standards and Best Practice,  outlining the legal framework, policies and practices regarding the use of custodial measures for children in Ireland and [...]

The Irish Penal Reform Trust will publish a new report: Detention of Children in Ireland: International Standards and Best Practice. The report, which will be launched Monday 30th November in Dublin, considers the implementation of international human rights standards to children detention in Ireland, and details best practice examples from Ireland and other European jurisdictions.
The [...]

Incontrovertible and devastating evidence of chronic conditions in the largest prison in the State has been released in the Report of an Inspection of Mountjoy Prison by the Inspector of Prisons, which had been published today. The report details the appalling treatment of prisoners in Mountjoy Prison. These are core human rights issues, and the [...]

Thornton Hall to go ahead despite overwhelming evidence that ‘super-prisons’ do not work
300 prisoners is the maximum manageable size of a prison, according to incontrovertible international evidence presented at the ‘Re-imagining the Role of Prisons in Irish Society’ Open Forum last week, yet the government - whose officials were in attendance at the IPRT event [...]