‘Difficulty’ over Central Mental Hospital beds for prisoners

THERE are continuing problems in transferring psychiatrically ill prisoners to the Central Mental Hospital (CMH), according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS).

An IPS spokesman said they could not comment on the case highlighted by the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, and reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner. The inspector revealed details of an inmate who was crawling on all fours in a cell, naked and covered in his own excrement. He was incoherent and had been in this condition for six days.

He had not been transferred to the CMH because no beds were available.