Big expansion of Portlaoise's Midlands Prison floated by Government

The capacity of the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise could jump beyond the 1,000 mark under new plans announced by the Minister for Justice, Simon Harris.

Against the backdrop of intense pressure for spaces in Irish prisons, the Minister revealed plans to increase capacity at jails at the Prison Officer Association Conference in Galway.

The proposals would see capacity rise at Castlerea, Cloverhill, Midlands, and Mountjoy jails. It includes a new 100-cell “F Wing” in the Midlands prison would also have the potential to accommodate up to 180 prisoners.

The Laois jail is already the biggest in the country but the addition of a new block would push the official capacity from 875 to 1,000. The Midlands Prison is located beside the Portlaoise Prison with which it shares some facilities. It was built as a public-private partnership at a cost of €50 and opened in 2000. 

On the eve of the Minister's announcement, there were 915 people locked up in the Dublin Road jail leaving giving a capacity of 105%. While the Midlands is a designated prison for inmates already convicted or sentenced, almost 10% of those locked up on April 26 were on remand awaiting trial.

The Governor of the Midlands Prison, Portlaoise, David Conroy, spoke about the impact of overcrowding to the Irish Times in January 2023.

“Tensions rise when prisons are overcrowded...If we fill every place and somebody new comes in, what we give them at that stage is a mattress (on the floor).

“It is a reality that if you hire more guards and more judges, if you tighten up bail conditions and bail laws, then (prison) numbers rise.

"So we’re at the point now where consideration needs to be given to policy (providing for) more community-based sentencing and to address overcrowding. It’s not an easy question to answer and really we have to start at a sentencing level," he said.

The Minister also announced plans for other jails.

In Castlerea, it is proposed to develop 25 additional prisoner houses, each providing accommodation for four prisoners, potentially providing additional spaces for 100 prisoners.

In Cloverhill, the development of a new prison block for 110 cells in a “G wing” located between the existing A and B Wings has the potential to accommodate up to 190 additional prisoners.

A Department of Justice statement said the need for additional prison spaces arises because of significant population growth in recent years, as well as planned population growth in the coming years. The Department said it also arises due to increases in judicial resources and increasing numbers of Gardaí.

Speaking at the conference Minister Harris said: “This week I brought a Memo to Government outlining capacity issues in prisons – both in terms of the scale of the problem faced and how we might progress medium and longer-term solutions for it.

"I will now engage with my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on this with a view to progressing an agreed schedule of capital builds across the prison estate,” he said.

“The Government is committed to building stronger, safer communities and to progressing policies aimed at diverting people away from the criminal justice system where appropriate.

“I also recently approved a number of measures aimed at reducing pressures in the prison system through the use of different schemes, and I have expedited the review of sentence remission.

“However, the important work of the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform and these recent measures will only take us so far in reducing numbers in prison,” he said.

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The Department said that over the last number of years, the Government has provided and will continue to provide significant capital funding to the Irish Prison Service in order to enhance the existing prison infrastructure. 

Provisional figures from the Irish Prison Service show there were 7,055 committals to prison in 2022, an increase of 919 (15%) on 2021 figures (6,136).