Highly critical report issued by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons
Supervision records falsified at Cloverhill
Supervision records were found to have been falsified following the death of a mentally ill prisoner who was found dead in his cell at Cloverhill Prison three years ago.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons has issued a highly critical report into how the Irish Prison Service (IPS) handled the detention of the Spanish resident, identified as “Mr O”, at Cloverhill Prison in August 2022.
It was recorded in a prison journal that the 52-year-old, who was being held in an observation cell, had been checked on at 7am, 7.15am and 7.30am on the morning of August 10, as prisoners under close supervision are supposed to be checked every 15 minutes.
However, Mr O was found unresponsive in his cell at 6.50am that morning and was pronounced dead at 9.45am.
This “raised serious concerns” over the standard of record keeping at Cloverhill prison, according to the report issued by the inspectorate last Thursday, July 31, also noting that an attempt was made to erase the three later entries.
“This is not the first occasion on which the Inspectorate has raised serious concerns regarding the standard of record keeping in prisons and highlighted the seriousness of prison staff falsifying official records.”
Mr O was a resident of Spain and had travelled to Ireland the previous month.
He was arrested on August 4, 2022, at Dublin Airport and charged with a public order offence.
Prison staff reported his behaviour on committal as “erratic” and uncooperative, and a psychiatric review on August 5 recorded it was “likely Mr. O had relapsed into a manic psychotic illness”.
He was scheduled to be transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital for August 11, however he was found sitting on the toilet of his cell unresponsive on the morning of August 10.
The report does not indicate any cause of death, but it does show that Mr O had refused food and drink in the hours leading up to his death.
The inspectorate was highly critical of how long it took for a transfer to be arranged for Mr O who was in such a clear state of mental illness.
It called for an urgent multi-agency approach to “systemic changes that are required to facilitate the swift transfer of persons suspected or convicted or minor offences, who have mental disorders, to local psychiatric hospitals”.
The report also called for the introduction of a Prison Escort Record for all prisoners, as Mr O arrived in Cloverhill from Dublin Airport Garda Station with “no identification or personal belongings”, despite being arrested while attempting to board a flight.
The report into Mr O’s death comes just weeks after a report from the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which highlighted major shortcomings at Cloverhill Prison both in the case of Mr O and in the death of another prisoner in April 2021.
In response to the report from the Office of Prison Inspectors, the Irish Prison Service stated additional resources were being assigned to Cloverhill and that it was implementing multiple recommendations from the report.
A “digitisation project” is set to be introduced later this year to limit the risk of falsification and enhance the quality of records.
“Staff who are found to falsify records are sanctioned in line with the Code of Discipline,” they said.
