Prisons were designed as a tool for social control, built to punish the poor and quell social unrest. The harms prison cause to individuals and families are felt most keenly by poor communities. Prison expansion will only compound this burden. Abolitionists call for divestment and alternatives to the broken criminal justice system.

It should really shock us that the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment after visiting the women’s prisons in Ireland had sufficient reason to remind the Irish Authorities that ‘Any force used on a pregnant woman must be appropriate, justified and proportionate, other less invasive and de-escalation techniques should always be resorted to first.’

The illness of overincarceration has been spreading for decades in the Irish prison system. It will not be cured with a single intervention but a steady course of decarceral treatments. Similarly, decades of State neglect of communities will require a long-term commitment of resources. But having the correct diagnosis is a vital starting point for a response.