PRISON has been described by the Irish Penal Reform Trust as the worst possible place for a person with schizophrenia and a “powder keg” for people with psychiatric problems after a 25-year-old Dubliner, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, was found guilty of the manslaughter of a fellow Mountjoy inmate.

GARDAÍ were last night facing allegations of a cover-up over the death of a 20-year-old in custody.

THE savage murder of Gary Douch, who was kicked, strangled and beaten to death in his Mountjoy prison cell, is to be probed by a commission of investigation.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today announced that a Commission of Investigation is to be established into the death of Gary Douch, who died following an attack on him while he was a prisoner in Mountjoy prison on August 1, 2006.

FORMER High Court judge Dermot Kinlen is well placed to be critical of the manner in which the independent inquiry into the death of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison is being conducted.

THE appointment of a former Justice Department official to investigate last week’s murder of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison has been criticised by the Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen.

Calls have been made to speed up plans for a new prison for Spike Island following a series of chronic overcrowding problems and a number of violent incidents in Cork and Dublin prisons in recent days.

THE necessity to establish an independent inquiry into the death of a prisoner in Mountjoy Prison is indicative of the intolerable overcrowding conditions that have been allowed to flourish in recent years by the policy of the present Government, spearheaded by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday ordered an independent inquiry into the death of Mountjoy prisoner Gary Douch.