The number of people being sent to prison increased by over 10% last year according to the annual report from the Irish Prison Service.
Around 75% of all those jailed were sentenced to 12 months in prison or less.
The number of people being sent to prison for nonpayment of fines has almost doubled from 455 to 860 in 2019.
The annual report also shows an increase in prisoners being held on remand who are awaiting trial.
Over 7,000 people were sent to prison last year, the vast majority were male and most, over a third, were from Dublin.
Overcrowding remains a problem within the prisons but has been alleviated by the large number of inmates on temporary release because of the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been no case of an inmate becoming infected with Covid-19 within the prisons.
The Director of the Prison Service Caron McCaffrey said the country's only remand prison at Clover Hill is full and remand prisoners have had to be spread across the prison estate.
Ms McCaffery also pointed out that an increasing number of these prisoners face more serious criminal charges, require imprisonment at higher levels of security and need to be detained for much longer periods than previously.
The Prison Service received eight protected disclosures last year, seven of which are under investigation, the other one was forwarded to the Department of Justice.
The prison service budget was over €350m and over €250m was spent on salaries.
