24-hour lockdown ‘won’t keep drugs out of jail’

EVEN a 24-hour ‘lock-down’ of prisoners in St Patrick’s Institution in Dublin would not stop drugs being smuggled in illegally, the deputy governor said yesterday.

Séamus Cramer said officers worked hard to stop drugs getting in, as he spoke at the inquest of John Paul Mitchell, aged 20, of Orchard Park, The Curragh, Co Kildare, who died with massive amounts of ecstasy in his system.

Mr Mitchell was discovered dead in his bed on a drug-free wing of the prison for 16- to 21-year-olds on December 13, 2003.