Cockroaches, cold cells and shrinking laundry among Mountjoy inmates’ complaints

Gordon Deegan

The unavailability of gluten-free food, mash with every meal, cockroaches in a prison cell, and clothes shrunk from the laundry were just some of the complaints made by inmates of Mountjoy Prison in 2024.

The annual report of the Mountjoy Prison Visiting Committee (MPVC) for 2024 highlighted the overcrowding situation in the prison.

It said staff shortages and the strain put on the system by having up to 35 per cent of the prisoners on protected status contributed to the overcrowding problem.

In their 27-page report submitted to the Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan, the visiting committee states that the overcrowding situation is worsening, with numbers in custody at 118 per cent of capacity at the end of 2024.

The MPVC has recommended to the IPS to address “the poor and often degrading prison conditions”, including overcrowding, where men have to go to the toilet in front of one another in their cells.

The MPVC states in many of those doubled-up cells, one prisoner has to sleep on a mattress on the floor, either with his head beside the base of the cell toilet or by the cell door, where he is in danger of being hit by the door if it has to be opened for some urgent need.

In their report, the MPVC states that it wishes to emphasise, once again, that a doubled-up cell with two men in a space designed for one man “is a very degrading and unhygienic environment for both men”.

The committee states that “more generally, prisoners are continuing to live in poor cell conditions in certain parts of the prison. We have received complaints of wet cell walls, of cold cells, of broken toilets, of leaking sinks and of unhygienic conditions”.

The overcrowding situation has worsened further in 2025, with the latest IPS statistics showing numbers in custody at 136 per cent of capacity on December 24th 2025, which included 178 prisoners sleeping on cell mattresses.

The MPVC stated that the number of complaints it received in 2024 increased by 46 per cent to 373 from the 256 complaints received in 2023.

The most complaints received, at 45, concerned cells/accommodation issues, while 44 complaints were made relating to visiting issues.

The MPVC received 26 complaints from inmates concerning TV channels, arising mainly from the loss of various channels from in-cell TVs.

The committee received eight complaints concerning prison food, which included "mash with every meal, gluten-free food not available, no healthy breakfast option and chicken served too often".

The same number of complaints were made concerning the prison laundry, which included "clothes shrunk from laundry or returned with burn marks".

On the issue of hygiene, five complaints were made and included "cockroaches in cell. Dead pigeon on window ledge of cells".

The MPVC received 14 complaints under the heading of "Other" which included “general unhappiness with how being treated; frequency of phone calls; loss of minor benefits; unhappy with poor conditions in the prison, in particular constant curtailment of services due to staff shortages”.

The committee received 10 complaints concerning "Visitors Refused" and the complaints arose from “Visitors refused for failing swab test; visitors barred from visiting due to several swab test failures; complaints about use and validity of swabbing of visitors”.

Nineteen complaints were received under the heading of education, and they included “school regularly closed; lack of consistent schooling - only 45 minutes per week over last three weeks; maximum 2 x 1-hour school per week; no laptops for many doing Open University courses and no in-cell education available".

Five complaints were received under the heading of "Pre-release preparation and fear of homelessness", including “little help available for transition back into society, feeling unprepared for release; concerns regarding resettlement and fears for safety; that only hostel accommodation will be available, which is considered a dangerous environment”.

Elsewhere, the report stated that during 2024, the proportion of Mountjoy prisoners under a restrictive regime due to fear of harm to themselves from others or to be at risk of harm from others was approximately one-third of all prisoners.

The majority of those prisoners would spend 21 to 22 hours per day in their cells for their own protection.