Number of deaths in prison up 55% last year, says chief | Breaking News & Latest Ireland Updates

Number of deaths in prison up 55% last year, says chief — The number of prisoners who died in custody in Ireland increased by 55% last year - up from 20 in 2023 to 31 last year. However, Chief Inspector of Pr...

The number of prisoners who died in custody in Ireland increased by 55% last year - up from 20 in 2023 to 31 last year.

However, Chief Inspector of Prisons Mark Kelly said the "increase is even higher" when the figures are broken down.

"If we look purely at deaths in prisons, they've actually gone up by 90%," Mark Kelly said.

Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Mr Kelly said this is due to "a mix of factors", adding "the overcrowding crisis in prisons is having a major impact".

Mr Kelly said the overcrowding is "increasing tension, it's resulting in people who have existing addiction issues and mental health issues being crammed into conditions which in many instances are degrading".

"So we're seeing deaths that are linked to addiction, linked to overdoses and also very worryingly linked to faulty risk assessment processes when people are first brought in and that can lead to incompatible categories of people being placed together," he said.

This, he said, occurs when a prisoner "who has a profile of committing assaults" is placed with another inmate "who has been a victim".

However, he said "ultimately the cause of death is a matter for the coroner in any individual case".

Mr Kelly said the conditions in Mountjoy are "deplorable", adding the body has been "been sounding the alarm on that since 2022".

"I wrote to the then minister, now Tánaiste, Simon Harris on the subject," he said, adding "I subsequently met with Helen McEntee as well".

Mr Kelly said people in Mountjoy are "being crammed into cells which were designed for one person".

"They have a choice - they can sleep with their head next to the bed, in which case they risk being trod upon by the other occupant of the cell or they can do what most of them choose to do, which is sleep with their head next to an unpartitioned toilet, and they're eating and drinking in these spaces as well," he said.

On public apathy towards bad conditions for prisoners, Mr Kelly said the the deprivation of liberty "is the punishment and there is a prohibition on people being treated in a way that is inhuman and degrading".

"Treating people in this way and then releasing them back into society is very unlikely to lead to them being more law-abiding people when they return to our communities," he added.

He said the problems can "only be solved by an approach which looks across the entirety of the criminal justice system, not by focusing on prisons alone, and certainly by focusing only on capacity".

He added the solution "is to look at the conditions under which imprisonment is absolutely necessary", such as prison being used as "a measure of last resort".