Watchdog calls for increased efforts to stop drugs getting into prisons following inmate's death
Governor The Death The Second Which To In Prison Carson/pa Prisons The In Of A Death Contraband Wire Acknowledged It Report The Picture: A Niall Inspector 12, Have The Cloverhill Been Old 34 Prisoner Was In Into August Appeared 2021, Factor That On Year Year Remand The Noted Of
The State’s prison watchdog has repeated its call on the Irish Prison Service (IPS) to intensify efforts to physically prevent contraband from entering the country’s prisons following another suspected death of a prisoner who had consumed illicit substances.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) recommended the IPS should also intensify its interactions with gardaí to develop a multi-agency written strategy to tackle the problem of drugs and other prohibited materials getting into prisons.
The call follows the death of a prisoner a few hours after reports he had consumed drugs and home-made alcohol in Cloverhill Prison in Dublin three years ago.
In a report into the death of the 34-year-old remand prisoner on August 12, 2021, the prisons inspector noted the governor of Cloverhill acknowledged it was the second death in the prison that year in which contraband appeared to have been a factor.
The prisoner — identified only as Mr E — was sharing a cell with two other prisoners at the time of his death.
One of them told investigators Mr E told him he had acquired five-10 “zimos” (a slang word for benzodiazepines) in the yard and he had already consumed four.
OIP investigators were told there were four litres of “hooch” or illicit alcohol in their cell.
They were told the three prisoners, including Mr E, drank about two litres between them, with one prisoner claiming it had “quite an effect". Both of Mr E’s cellmates reported he was slurring his speech at 11.30pm when he was placed in a chair near air vents to try and sober him up.
A cellmate woke at 3.30am and told Mr E, who was still sitting in a chair, to go to bed. He helped Mr E into the toilet where he threw up.
The two other prisoners spoke at 5.30am before falling back asleep in the belief Mr E was okay as he had not vomited since 3.30am.
One of them said they noticed soiled bed clothes in the lower bunk when they woke at 7am and realised Mr E had been ill again.
He began CPR at 7.03am after hearing him making a gargling sound but was unresponsive when called.
The other prisoner started banging on the cell door to raise the alarm.
Prison officers found Mr E’s cellmates in a panic, stating: “He’s after getting sick and we can’t wake him.” A nurse said he was unresponsive and cold to the touch, with dry blood visible on his face and on the bed clothes.
The OIP observed paramedics called to the prison had ceased resuscitation efforts on Mr E at 8.05am and he was formally pronounced dead an hour later by a doctor.
The prison watchdog noted Cloverhill’s chief nurse officer had raised concerns about the length of the waiting list for drug counselling at a critical incident review meeting held on the day after Mr E’s death.
The meeting was told an extra 18 prisoners had been added to the list that day.
In its recommendations, the OIP urged the prison authorities to use technological measures to prevent and detect contraband in prisons.
It also called for any strategy to tackle the problem to also contain measures to prevent exploitation and coercion being used to bring drugs and other illicit substances into prisons.
The IPS said it accepted the recommendations and their implementation was “ongoing.”