Prisons in the Republic of Ireland


Prisons in Ireland are one of the main forms of punishment, rehabilitation, or both for the commission of an indictable offense and other offenses.

Authority

In 1925, shortly after the establishment of the Irish Free State, Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, introduced legislation repealing the existing ability of grand juries to appoint visiting committees to prisons within the state. Instead, the authority to appoint the members of prison visiting committees was vested solely in the person of the Minister. Similarly, the management of the prison system within the Irish Free State passed to the control of the minister with the dissolution by statutory instrument of the General Prisons Board for Ireland in 1928. The G.P.B. had been an all-Ireland body. Thus, by this date, both the responsibility and control over the management and oversight of the prison service within the Irish Free State was held within the Minister's department.
This situation remained unchanged until 1999 when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, John O'Donoghue, established the Irish Prison Service to which was delegated the task of managing the day-to-day running of the prison system. Simultaneously in 1999, a Prisons Authority Interim Board was established and its members were appointed by the Minister in 2000. The purpose of this board was to advise the director general and directors of the Irish Prison Service on the management of the penal system. In 2002 the retired High Court Judge, Dermot Kinlen, was appointed the state's first Inspector of Irish Prisons. However, none of these new bodies was ever established on a statutory basis despite indications to the contrary. Indeed, as recently as January 2011, Dermot Ahern informed the Dáil that:
In 2025, the Irish Prison Service had an annual budget of €525 million. As of year ending 2023 it had a staff of 3,547 people.

EuroPris and the European Union

is a member of the European Union and the EuroPris system. Being a member of this system requires abolition of the death penalty and the provision of humane prison conditions. The goal of the Europris system is to ensure cooperation between European prison systems which aims to improve the lives of prisoner and their families, growing public safety and security, and reducing the re-offending rate.

Prison services

The Irish prison system attempts to educate inmates and give them opportunities to avoid recidivism. The system provides multiple forms of education including vocational, life skills, basic education, healthy living, and technology education. The system also provides opioid addiction treatment facilities that covers at least 80% of the Irish prison population. They also ready the inmates for reintegration and resettlement back into society and provide mental health and health services for the inmates.

Prison population rate

As of May 2025, the prison population in Ireland was 6,129 which is 115% of designed capacity which is 4,666. The service aims to open another 1500 beds. As of May 2025 the latest available official statistics are at year ending 2023. In January 2023, the incarceration rate was approximately 89 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The proportions in the prison population are: 15.8% are pre-trial and remand prisoners, 4.3% are females, and 12.3% of the prisoners are foreign.

Prisons and prison population

There are 13 prisons in Ireland with a total bed capacity of 4,666 as of 16 May 2025 however, most of these prisons operate at or above capacity with the average capacity of a prison being 115%.

Sentencing

In 2023 there were 6,495 committals to prisons in Ireland, which is an increase of 11.9% on 2022 when the equivalent figure was 5,801 committals.

Cost of placement

The average cost to incarcerate a person in a prison in 2023 was €88,523 per annum. This was an increase of 5.3% on the 2022 cost which was €84,067.

Active prisons

PrisonLocationYear openedTypeSecuritySentencedRemandAge RangeSpecial FeaturesServicing Area ofMale CapacityFemale CapacityDaily Average
Number 		Daily Average
Number
Mountjoy PrisonDublin 71850ClosedMedium18+-Dublin City75507840
Dóchas CentreDublin 71999ClosedMedium18+-National 01460165
Training UnitDublin 71974Semi-OpenLow18+Facility for older male inmatesNational960950
Cork PrisonCork City1972ClosedMedium18+-Cork, Kerry, Waterford29603060
Limerick PrisonMulgrave Street, Limerick1822ClosedMedium18+-Males: Clare, Limerick, Tipperary. Females: Munster2865629349
Castlerea PrisonCastlerea, County Roscommon1996ClosedMedium18+-Connacht, Cavan, Donegal, Longford34003690
Cloverhill PrisonCloverhill, Dublin 221999ClosedMedium18+-Leinster 43304600
Wheatfield PrisonCloverhill, Dublin 221989ClosedMedium18+-Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Wexford, Wicklow61005710
Portlaoise PrisonPortlaoise, County Laois1902ClosedHigh18+For those sentenced in the Special Criminal Court; subversive crimeNational22902240
Arbour Hill PrisonDublin 71975ClosedMedium17+Sexual offenders; long term sentencesNational13701340
Midlands PrisonPortlaoise, County Laois2000ClosedMedium17+-Carlow, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Monaghan, Wexford, Wicklow87409140
Loughan HouseCounty Cavan1973OpenLow18+-National14001200
Shelton AbbeyArklow, County Wicklow1973OpenLow19+-National1150980
One reason Ireland has a successful recidivism programme is the educational opportunities they provide while prisoners are serving a sentence. During a sentence, an inmate has access to a wide variety of classes, as well as personal tutoring services to help them succeed in their classes. These classes include home economics, art, pottery, photography, drama and music, crafts, technology, horticulture, and lastly science programs. There are also instructional technology courses available at certain facilities. If inmates do decide to attend classes, this allows them to be excused from some of the work duties that are required by the prison each day. All of this is provided through the Department of Justice and the Irish Vocational Education Committee. To decide what classes each inmate should enroll in, each inmate goes through an interviewing process. This helps the inmates because it gives them a personalized schedule that they would not be able to make on their own. Participating inmates are interviewed on a weekly basis to see if they are struggling in any classes. This allows the program to be more successful because if an inmate is having any trouble in their classes it is to be assessed right away so they can get the help they need to get back on track.

Minors

Formerly, children in Ireland were detained in Industrial Schools or Reformatory Schools. Currently, within the Republic of Ireland, they are detained in institutions called Children Detention Schools. These detention schools are managed by the Irish Youth Justice Service. There are four facilities for the detention of "children", defined as boys under the age of 17 and girls under the age of 18: