The Irish Prison Service should intensify its efforts to physically prevent contraband from entering prisons and to detect its presence once on the premises, the Office of the Inspector of Prison has urged.
In a report on the death of a prisoner at Cloverhill Prison, the inspector said this should include using technology.
A report by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons into the death of a 34-year-old man, identified as Mr E, who died at Cloverhill in August 2021 was given to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee in February and laid before the Oireachtas this week.
The inspector also urges that the Irish Prison Service should intensify its engagement with other relevant stakeholders including An Garda Síochána, to develop a multi-agency written strategy to counter contraband entering a prison.
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“This strategy should examine the use of technology, architectural disruptions, as well as how to prevent exploitation and coercion being used as a means to bring drugs and other contraband into a prison.”
Mr E was a remand prisoner who had been committed to Cloverhill Prison in May 2021 on drug charges.
The report says that at the time of his death, Mr E was sharing a cell with two other prisoners and during the afternoon of August 11st, 2021, they were given access to the exercise yard.
One of the other prisoners told the inspector that Mr E had informed him he had acquired five to 10 tablets, known as “zimmos”, in the yard from another prisoner and that he had already taken four. The report says there was also evidence the prisoners had consumed illicit alcohol in the cell.
The other prisoners reported that Mr E had become ill during the night and was unresponsive in the morning.
Staff and paramedics administered CPR but at 9.05am, a doctor pronounced him dead.
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