The Irish Prison Service has urged the Department of Justice to consider allowing the temporary release of prisoners who “pose a medium to high-risk of re-offending/de-stabilisation in the community,” having exhausted all options to release low-risk prisoners in the face of worsening overcrowding in Irish prisons.
In a March 2025 letter to a senior Department official, released to Gript under the FOI Act, Director General of the IPS, Caron McCaffrey warned that “difficult” policy choices were required to avoid “a major prison disturbance” arising from the dangerous levels of overcrowding prisons are currently experiencing.
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