Overcrowding in jails was so severe that the Irish Prison Service planned hostage-negotiation training and considered using courthouse cells in the event of serious riots.
A response group was told “operational tensions are severe” and that the prison population would reach 6,000 by this summer.
It said the Irish Prison Service needed to be ready for further escalation with plans put in place for what would happen if cell capacity was lost because of disorder in jails.
Contact was made with the Courts Service to see if its holding cells could be used in the event of an emergency.
At the time, 5,767 people were being held in just 4,718 available spaces, with 611 prisoners sleeping on mattresses on floors.
Minutes of the response group’s meeting from January also detail how the Irish Prison Service (IPS) had sought a fixed cap on prisoner numbers from the Department of Justice.
However, the proposal had not been approved by Minister Jim O’Callaghan.
The records said: “The IPS stated that a maximum number would be reached – irrespective of agreement on a cap – due to the inability for [them] to accommodate additional prisoners once all usable, secure floor space had been exhausted.”
The minutes said increased use of video-link technology would be helpful, but progress was limited and “at the discretion of individual judges.”
It said judges had visited prisons to see how the technology worked but that this had not led to “a significant shift in practice.”
The Irish Prison Service also lamented the lack of halfway housing to support public safety when criminals were released.
Concerns were raised as well about the increasing number of people on remand with little data available on why bail was objected to.
There was a particular problem with what was called the “holding cell phenomenon,” according to records released under FOI.
This involved cases where a person was held on remand, sometimes for months, yet later released without a custodial sentence.