Prison officers believed a Mountjoy inmate was pretending to be suicidal to manipulate staff less than 90 minutes before he was found dead in his cell.
Inspector of Prisons Judge Michael Reilly also found that the inmate was found hanging from a lace tied to the window bars despite an order earlier that night to remove his shoelaces from the cell.
The judge’s report, which was released yesterday, said the inmate was found unconscious in his cell early on March 5th, 2015. He was brought to the Mater hospital where he died five days later. The judge said he found “serious issues of significant concern” surrounding the man’s death including intervals of up to 81 minutes between cell checks when they should be no more than 15 minutes apart.
At 10pm the day before, the inmate told a prison officer he needed to get off his landing as he was going to be cut up because he “ratted” on another prisoner. The report states that at 12.38am officers found the inmate lying on the floor of his cell with a torn piece of his bedclothes around his neck. He again asked to be transferred but was told nothing could happen until morning.
At 2am, officers found the inmate unconscious in his cell.
The judge found no care plan or assessment was done for the prisoner and that at one stage on the evening before the incident, it took officers 29 minutes to respond to the prisoner’s call bell.
