Ireland’s statutory prison watchdog, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP), has just completed an unannounced general inspection of Limerick Women’s Prison. Inspectors also visited unit D1 in Limerick Prison for Men, which is currently holding a transgender woman. The Inspectorate’s five-day visit concluded on Friday 22 November 2024, with a formal meeting at which the Inspectorate shared its preliminary findings with Governors and senior staff.

Nine of Ireland’s thirteen prisons, including both prisons for women, have now received unannounced general inspections as part of the Inspectorate’s programme of regular inspections of all prisons in Ireland.

The inspections were carried out under the Inspectorate’s Framework for the Inspection of Prisons in Ireland.

Specially-secured electronic tablets were used to enable a significant number of prisoners to complete an anonymous survey. Staff working in Limerick Women’s Prison were also surveyed anonymously. These survey results became available in real time during the inspection.

This inspection was carried out by:

  • Mr. Mark Kelly, Chief Inspector of Prisons
  • Ms. Pia Janning, Senior Inspector
  • Ms. Michelle Martyn, Lead Inspector
  • Ms. Laura Anderson, Inspector
  • Dr. Sarah Curristan, Inspector
  • Dr. Douglas Nanka-Bruce, Data Analyst

The OIP Inspection Team was assisted by the following experts:

  • Dr. Sharon Lambert, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork
  • Dr. George O’Mahony, General Practitioner

In addition, the team benefitted from the expertise of Ms Liz O’Neill and Ms Yvonne Ní Mhurchú from the Inspectorate of the Department of Education (*).

The inspection team was also accompanied during part of the inspection by three staff members from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): Mr Charles Beautrel Nguena, Coordinator of Detention Activities, Niger; Mr Giulio Gugliuzza, Coordinator of Detention Activities, Ethiopia and Ms Mirella Seguin, Coordinator of Protection/Detention Activities, Chad. These three colleagues shadowed the work of the Inspectorate as part of an ICRC study visit to Ireland. The Inspectorate looks forward to deepening its cooperation with the ICRC in the future.

Speaking at the end of the inspection, Chief Inspector Mr Mark Kelly said:

“Limerick Women’s Prison was officially opened on 18 October 2023 by the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD. As this new facility has now been in operation for more than a year, the inspection provided an opportunity to review the extent to which it is living up to its original aspiration to provide a trauma-informed environment for the women living there.”

“I would like to thank the Governors and the staff of the prison for their cooperation and engagement with our preliminary findings”.

Note to editors

The Office of the Inspector of Prisons is a statutory body, independent in how it carries out its work, set up under the Prisons Act 2007.

The law underpinning the role of Chief Inspector of Prisons is set out in Part 5, Sections 30 to 32 of the Prisons Act 2007. Section 30 provides for the appointment of the Chief Inspector, Section 31 sets out the functions of the Chief Inspector and Section 32 specifies the requirement to submit an Annual Report to the Minister for Justice, by 31 March in any year. The Inspectorate’s Annual Report for 2023 was submitted to the Minister on 29 March 2024.

Under Section 31 of the Act, the Chief Inspector of Prisons is obliged to carry out regular inspections of prisons and for this purpose may: at any time enter any prison or any part of a prison, request and obtain from the Governor a copy of any books, records, other documents or extracts from such documents, and, in the course of an inspection or arising out of an inspection bring any issues of concern to the notice of the governor of the prison concerned, the Director General of the Irish Prison Service or the Minister as the Chief Inspector considers appropriate.

The Chief Inspector may, and must if he receives a request from the Minister, investigate any matter arising out of the management or operation of a prison and shall submit to the Minister a report on any such investigation.

Governors, prison officers, other persons employed in prisons and prisoners, must as far as reasonably practicable, comply with any request for information that the Chief Inspector may make in the performance of his functions.

Since 2012, the Chief Inspector has also been obliged to investigate the circumstances of all deaths in custody and those within one month of temporary release from custody. To date in 2024, there have been 27 deaths falling within the Inspectorate’s mandate, all of which are being independently investigated.

In addition to the legislative authority derived from the Act, the Chief Inspector has specified functions under Prison Rules 2007-2013 in relation to the Irish Prison Service Prisoner Complaints Procedure (Rule 57B) and letters from prisoners (Rule 44 (1) (h)).

It is anticipated that, in the near future, the Inspectorate will become the Inspectorate of Places of Detention, with an expanded remit as the National Preventive Mechanism for the Justice sector under the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT).

(*) The OIP has concluded a Memorandum of Agreement with the Inspectorate of the Department of Education, enabling it to benefit from the expertise of colleagues from that Inspectorate when assessing educational provision in prisons.

For further information, please see: www.oip.ie

ENDS