The Department of Justice has published the visiting committee reports for eight of the country's prisons for last year.
The committees for Castlerea, Cloverhill and Cork prisons expressed concern about the levels of overcrowding.
In Castlerea, there were at one time 46 prisoners for 20 remand places and 238 inmates for 202.
The lack of psychological and psychiatric services for inmates was also posing problems in Arbour Hill, Castlerea and the Midlands prisons.
The committee stressed it was inappropriate for people with psychiatric problems to be put in prison and pointed out it took 43 days before one inmate was referred to the Central Mental Hospital.
The report for the Midlands Prison also found that, because of the escalation in violence and gun crime among gangs outside, it has become increasingly difficult to keep different factions apart in the prisons.
