The New Women’s Prison in Limerick is regarded as the most state-of-the-art prison in Europe. With an innovative ‘trauma-informed’ design this is a brave new touchstone for the Irish Prison Services; one that indicates a tide change in how prisons operate in Ireland. But what does success look like in a facility like this and how does it reflect upon a modern Ireland? What is rehabilitation? Next to what social norms? What does this all say about a society where some may feel safer incarcerated, indeed, where some not even yet born are destined to end up ‘inside’?
