In this sixth edition of PIPS, the 2022 report reflects on the past six years of monitoring the Irish penal system – the progress made, the areas where little change has been effected, and the issues about which we still have a limited understanding due to a lack of data.

Due to IPRT’s previous efforts to place a more in-depth focus on a smaller number of standards during the pandemic years, many of the standards assessed in PIPS 2022 have not been assessed in PIPS since 2019, with some not assessed since 2020. In 2022, the report reviews 28 of the 35 standards that have become synonymous with PIPS.  

Of the 28 standards assessed:

• four were classified as having progressed
• five as having regressed
• no change was registered in nine cases
• while eight standards were classified as ‘mixed’ (indicating that there has been progress towards the standard in some areas and regress away from it in others)