In the late twentieth century it was threatened with demolition as it lay on the path of Dublin Corporation’s road-widening plans[6] for the Inner Tangent Road.

In the 1990s the Green Street Trust, a charitable body composed mainly of members of the Students Against the Destruction of Dublin acquired a lease of the building from the Office of Public Works.

The Trust ran low on funds and returned the lease to Office of Public Works who now control the building which is currently unused.

In August 2016, a group of squatters who had been recently evicted from a nearby Grangegorman squat complex began occupying the prison with the stated aim of converting the building into a community art space.

[8] The occupants sought support and cooperation from the Office of Public Works, as well as the local community with their stated intention being to restore the building and open the ground floor "for exhibitions and walking tours which would highlight social injustices from the past until today".