The average annual cost of keeping a person in prison has risen to over €100,000 for the first time in the history of the state, new figures have revealed.
The cost of maintaining an available, staffed prison space reached €103,334 last year, representing a 28.6 per cent surge in operational spending over a five-year period.
Rising costs are being driven by operational demands and broader economic factors, according to Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan.
“The main reasons for the increasing costs relate to increased variable costs, including higher prisoner numbers, higher capacity, higher payroll costs, and inflation,” he said in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Barry Ward.
In 2021, the average annual cost of a staffed prison space stood at €80,335.
This grew by 4.6 per cent to €84,067 in 2022, and rose by another 5.3 per cent to €88,523 the following year.
A further sharp increase of 11.9 per cent was recorded in 2024 when the cost reached €99,072, before crossing the six-figure threshold for the first time last year.
The figures provided by the minister exclude capital expenditure on buildings, information and communications technology (ICT), and vehicle purchases, only covering net operational expenditure such as staff salaries, utilities, maintenance, and basic prison services.
A specific breakdown of costs relating to food, transport, education, and utilities could not be provided because calculating that specific data would take “an inordinate amount of time and resources”, O’Callaghan said.
The surge in costs comes as the prison service struggles to cope with overcrowding, as the state’s 14 detention facilities were operating at 124% of capacity earlier this week, forcing 486 inmates to sleep on the floor.
The female prison in Limerick was proportionately the most overcrowded, operating at 168 per cent of capacity, forcing authorities to use camp beds to accommodate six women in cells.
O’Callaghan explained the Irish Prison Service (IPS) was legally bound to accommodate every individual remanded or sentenced by the courts, and outlined plans to expand prison capacity.
“The Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the courts and has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time,” he said.
The Midlands Prison had the highest number of inmates sleeping on the floor this week, with 166 prisoners accommodated on mattresses.
Cork Prison has 99 inmates on the floor, while 50 are sleeping on mattresses at both Cloverhill and Castlerea prisons.
