The number of people in custody in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) has fallen to its lowest this year amid the withdrawal of services by solicitors.
Analysis of prison service data by The Irish Times shows just 5,709 people were in custody on Friday, July 31st. This is the lowest number in jail at any point this year.
However, prison service sources said that with solicitor services not taking place, the prison population was just “weeks away” from reaching 6,000.
The expectation, said sources, is that shortly after the strike’s resolution, numbers will surge again and are likely to hit a new peak.
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The prison service recorded its all-time population record in mid-June, with 5,924 people in custody on the 17th.
That same day, solicitors began a three-day withdrawal from criminal legal aid cases, except custody cases, affecting thousands of criminal cases.
The withdrawal of service ramped up in advance of the commencement of a new District Court criminal legal aid payment plan which came into effect on July 1st.
The withdrawal carried through July and, last week, solicitors voted to extend the action into August.
Before Friday, the previous low was recorded last Christmas, when numbers dropped to 5,627 on December 26th.
The Irish Prison Service routinely grants temporary release to inmates nearing the end of their sentences at Christmas time – about 140 people were given temporary release at that time in 2024.
The total number in the system, including those on temporary release or detained in hospital, stands at 6,431 – also down from mid-June, when it was recorded at 6,720.
The drop in prisoner numbers is understood to have improved living conditions and slightly reduced the severe overcrowding in prisons.
A source said the overcrowding during the recent heatwave contributed to making conditions akin to a “furnace” in one Dublin prison.
The record-high prison population in June represented nearly 125 per cent of the service’s total bed capacity. That day, 540 people were on mattresses.
The 215-person total prison population reduction from its peak has reduced the number of prisoners on mattresses by more than 100.
In response to queries, the IPS emphasised it is required under law to accept into “custody all persons committed to prison by the courts”, and that it has no influence in deciding incarceration rates.
In a statement, it outlined measures and increased funding put in place to increase spaces, including a budgetary “allocation of €579 million in 2026, with a capital budget of €67.9 million dedicated to the delivery of additional prison spaces”.
When contacted, the Department of Justice said its Minister, Jim O’Callaghan, is “aware of the capacity constraints ... faced by those who work and live in our prisons”.
It said a “significant building programme” is under way, with record capital commitment of €528 million to be invested between 2026 and 2030, to deliver an additional 1,500 bed spaces.
