The State’s prison watchdog has repeated its call on the Irish Prison Service (IPS) to intensify its efforts to physically prevent contraband from entering the country’s prisons following another suspected death of a prisoner who had consumed illicit substances.
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons recommended that the IPS should also intensify its interactions with An Garda Síochána to develop a multi-agency written strategy to tackle the problem of drugs and other prohibited materials getting into prisons.
The call for greater measures to prevent and detect contraband in prisons follows the death of a prisoner a few hours after reports he had consumed drugs and home-made alcohol in Cloverhill Prison in Dublin three years ago.
In a report into the death of the 34-year-old remand prisoner on August 12th, 2021, the OIP noted the governor of Cloverhill acknowledged that it was the second death in the prison that year in which contraband appeared to have been a factor.
The prisoner – identified only as Mr E – had been remanded in custody three months earlier while awaiting trial on drug charges which was listed for hearing on August 24th, 2021.
He was sharing a cell with two other prisoners at the time of his death.
One of them told OIP investigators that Mr E told him that he had acquired 5-10 tablets known as “zimos” (a slang word for benzodiazepines) in the yard from another prisoner that afternoon.
The deceased told his cellmate that he had already consumed four “zimos” while he was in the yard.
A couple of prisoners who played cards with Mr E later that evening said he was in good form before all inmates were locked in their cells for the night.
OIP investigators were also informed that there were four litres of “hooch” or illicit alcohol in their cell.
They were told that the three prisoners, including Mr E, drank about two litres between them, with one prisoner claiming it had “quite an effect".
Both of Mr E’s cellmates reported that he was slurring his speech at 11.30pm when he was placed in a chair near air vents to try and sober him up.
One prisoner said he decided to sit up all night to make sure Mr E was OK.
He reported that the deceased was snoring loudly at one stage but did not find that unusual.
The other cellmate woke at 3.30am and told Mr E who was still sitting in a chair to go to bed.
He recounted how he helped Mr E into the toilet where he threw up.
He told the OIP staff that he placed the deceased in the recovery position in the lower bunk because he was concerned Mr E might fall from the top bunk.
The other prisoner said he placed a mattress on the floor to prevent Mr E from hitting the ground in case he fell out of his bed.
The two other prisoners spoke at 5.30am before falling back asleep in the belief that Mr E was OK as he had not vomited since 3.30am.
One of them said they noticed soiled bed clothes in the lower bunk when they woke at 7am and realised that Mr E had been ill again.
He began CPR on Mr E at 7.03am after hearing him making a gargling sound but was unresponsive when called.
The other prisoner started banging on the cell door to raise the alarm.
Report
The report noted that prison officers found Mr E’s cellmates in a panic, stating: “He’s after getting sick and we can’t wake him.”
A nurse who attended the deceased said he was unresponsive and cold to the touch with dry blood visible on his face and on the bed clothes.
The OIP observed that paramedics called to the prison had ceased resuscitation efforts on Mr E at 8.05am, and he was formally pronounced dead an hour later by a doctor.
The prison watchdog noted that Cloverhill’s chief nurse officer had raised concerns about the length of the waiting list for drug counselling at a critical incident review meeting held on the day after Mr E’s death.
The meeting was told that an extra 18 prisoners had been added to the list that day.
The OIP noted it had made the same recommendations in its report into the other suspected death of a prisoner from taking drugs in Cloverhill in 2021, which was published earlier this month.
In its recommendations, the OIP urged the prison authorities to use technological measures to prevent and detect contraband in prisons.
It also called for any strategy to tackle the problem to also contain measures to prevent exploitation and coercion being used to bring drugs and other illicit substances into prisons.
The IPS said it accepted the recommendations and their implementation was “ongoing".
Drug Strategy
The IPS said it had published a new Drug Strategy in 2023 with a renewed focus to address substance abuse in prisons.
It claimed engagement with gardaí had resulted in 75 arrests at Wheatfield/Cloverhill prison complex over a 13-year period to mid-March 2024.
The OIP report also noted that Mr E’s family criticised how they found out about his death via a phone call rather than in person.
However, the IPS said its protocol was for a prison chaplain to contact the next of kin by phone if they could not attend the home of the deceased family person.
In the case of Ms E, it explained that the chaplain had not attended the home because of Covid-19 restrictions and that it was practice to contact families by phone at the time.
