ONE IN FIVE people in Irish prisons are awaiting trial or sentencing, according to a new report that argues the country’s bail system is placing unnecessary pressure on an overcrowded prison system.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) said pre-trial detention should be used only as a last resort and warned that Ireland’s current approach risks undermining the right to liberty and a fair trial.

The report comes as Irish prisons continue to operate over capacity, with almost 6,000 people in custody. Of those, more than 1,000 are on remand awaiting trial or sentencing.

IPRT said the proportion of prisoners on remand has increased from 13% in 2016 to 19% this year.

It also highlighted that, in 2025, 74% of the 3,379 people remanded into custody were later released without receiving a custodial sentence because they were acquitted, received a non-custodial sentence or had already served enough time on remand.

“The constitutional rights to both liberty and the presumption of innocence are cornerstones of Irish law,” IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady said.

“Imprisonment should only ever be used as a sanction of last resort.”

The report argued that people experiencing homelessness, mental illness, addiction and poverty are disproportionately affected by remand, with prison increasingly acting as a “social safety net” for wider failures in housing and healthcare.

It also highlighted the disproportionate impact on Travellers, noting that while they make up less than 1% of the general population, they accounted for at least 8% of the prison population in June this year.

The report said that unaffordable cash bail, sometimes as low as €30, can effectively deny bail to people living in poverty.

Among its recommendations, IPRT called for the introduction of an adult bail supervision scheme, reforms to cash bail, greater use of therapeutic alternatives for people with mental health and addiction issues, and the decriminalisation of possession of drugs for personal use.

The organisation also recommended removing responsibility for prosecuting bail applications from An Garda Síochána and instead assigning it to trained legal professionalsw.