Inmate's death prompts warning from prison inspector about dangers 'of self-inflicted injuries'
It comes after a man was found unresponsive in his bed in his cell at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise with a large amount of congealed blood evident beneath his body. File photo
The Inspector of Prisons has urged the prison service to warn inmates of the dangers of self-inflicted injuries after a man's body was found in a pool of blood at the Midlands prison.
In its report into the death of the 73-year-old inmate on June 6, 2022, the office of the Inspector of Prisons referenced a "blood-stained razor blade" found in a rubbish bag in the prisoner's cell after his death.
It said there was no reference made to that discovery in the prison’s subsequent critical incident review meeting, held the day after the prisoner’s body was discovered. No recommendations were made at the same meeting about learnings from the incident.
The man in question had a history of long-standing medical issues, including psoriasis, rashes, and excess skin growths over much of his body, issues which tended to cause him “considerable discomfort”.
His family noted that he would regularly scratch at those lesions which would lead them to bleed, sometimes heavily. He had no history of mental illness, they said.
The prisoner had been on remand in the Portlaoise prison ahead of a court hearing later in June, and had previously come to the attention of the facility’s medical staff having scratched at the skin on his wrist in order, he said, to alleviate the pain it was causing him.
At that point the reviewing nurse officer told him that should he require pain relief in future, healthcare support was available to him around the clock in the prison. The prisoner replied that he “didn’t want to disturb the staff”.
The prisoner had held an affectionate in-person meeting with is wife on June 4, 2022, in which he had informed her they could not physically embrace due to the covid-19 restrictions which were in place at the time.
In the early hours of the morning two days later, the man was found unresponsive in his bed in his cell, with a large amount of congealed blood evident beneath his body. Subsequent analysis suggested he had been dead for some time.
Medical inspections of the scene found that the deceased man had two small lacerations, roughly 1cm across each, on his lower legs, one of which had perforated a varicose vein.
The doctors inspecting the scene recorded that “there was no obvious instrument evident that may have inflicted a wound”, per the report.
The subsequent critical incident review meeting, held on the morning of June 7, 2022, and chaired by the prison governor, laid out a detailed timeline of the events leading up to the prisoner’s death and the facility personnel’s response to same.
“However, no reference was made to a blood-stained razor blade having been found in a rubbish bag in (the prisoner’s) cell,” the report stated.
The report recommended that the Irish Prison Service “develop a new plain English information resource for prisoners, clearly highlighting the potentially fatal consequences of self-inflicted injuries”.
It further underlined the “essential” requirement that “a complete and accurate record be kept by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) of all items found in/removed from a prisoner’s cell following a death in custody”.
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