Throughout 2022, the Inspectorate continued to carry out the full range of its functions under the existing legislation, including the independent investigation of deaths in custody, exercising a degree of oversight over the prisoner complaints system and reviewing letters sent to us in confidence by people living in prisons. I was able to carry out short “familiarisation” visits to five prisons and, in November/December 2022, our team carried out an unannounced full inspection of Mountjoy Men’s Prison. This was the first such unannounced full inspection of an Irish prison for many years and it heralds the resumption of our core business of regular inspections of all prisons in Ireland.

[Click here for deaths in prison reports]