Justice campaigners have called for an overhaul of pretrial detention, saying the “opaque” and “haphazard” bail system risks eroding standards of evidence and the right to fair trial. The Irish Penal Reform Trust, a nongovernmental organisation campaigning for reform of penal policy, said more than 1,000 people in the overcrowded prison system were on remand awaiting trial or sentencing Remand is the act or process of sending an accused person back into custody before a trial. According to the trust, the proportion of people on remand as a share of the prison population has risen to 19 per cent last month from 13 per cent in July 2016. As of last Friday, Irish prisons were operating at 122 per cent capacity with 5,976 people in custody, of which 1,045 people were on remand.“Our concern is further compounded by the fact that in 2025, three out of four people held on remand were later released without receiving a custodial sentence,” said Saoirse Brady, the trust’s executive director.In a 58-page report published on Monday, the trust found that remand practices raised “serious concerns” about the necessity, proportionality and human rights implications of pretrial detention. “The constitutional rights to both liberty and the presumption of innocence are cornerstones of Irish law,” Brady said. “Imprisonment should only ever be used as a sanction of last resort, particularly when we know that people on remand are twice as likely to self-harm than those who are sentenced, and people on the margins are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system.“Going to prison in itself is a traumatic event, but for people who have not been found guilty of any offence or who do not go on to receive a custodial sentence, they face profound consequences in terms of their family relationships, employment, accommodation and wellbeing.”[ The Irish Times view on a new report on bail: the number held in pre-trial detention is too highOpens in new window ]The group has called for a new bail supervision scheme for adults, saying a successful youth justice pilot had consistent results “in significantly reducing reoffending” since 2016.It also called for legal reform to divert people with mental health conditions and addiction into appropriate health-based treatment, including therapeutic bail. Other recommendations include repealing part of the 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act on possession of drugs for personal use. The group also called for the removal of Garda responsibility for prosecuting bail applications and for reforming or dispensing with cash bail lodgements. The report found what it described as a pattern of “inappropriate use of objections” under section 2 of the Bail Act 1997, which permits the refusal of bail only where there is a risk of the commission of a further “serious offence”. That term was narrowly defined, it noted. “The research also highlights the phenomenon of ‘overcharging’, whereby individuals are charged with multiple offences arising from a single incident, which risks inflating the apparent severity of cases presented to the court,” the trust added. “The report highlights concerns surrounding the potential erosion of evidentiary standards in bail applications, particularly given the length of bail lists and the risk of Garda court presenters inadvertently raising inappropriate legal objections and disproportionate bail conditions.”The trust went on to say the research found the current bail framework disproportionately affected marginalised communities and that social and structural factors were driving the high rate of remand.“Unaffordable cash lodgments, sometimes as low as €30, effectively deny bail to individuals living in poverty, with women and members of the Traveller community identified as being particularly impacted. “The Traveller community, comprising less than 1 per cent of the general population, accounted for at least 8 per cent of the prison population in June 2026, with systemic and structural bias in bail proceedings well documented.”