Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 25 Jun 1996

Vol. 467 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - St. Patrick's Institution (Dublin) Death.

Mr. O'Donoghue

It is clear that previous attempts to prevent suicides in prisons have, tragically, not succeeded. The tragic death last Sunday of a young man in St. Patrick's Institution was the fourth in as many months and the second case of suicide by a prisoner remanded in custody.

The number of prisoners on remand is rising rapidly, primarily due to intolerable delays caused by archaic criminal procedures and something as fundamental as the paucity of the number of judges. The Courts and Court Officers Act was passed last December, yet the Minister for Justice has still to fill the existing vacancies for eight Circuit Court judges. The net result of the Minister's failure to act, because of her inability to convince the Minister for Finance of the urgency of the problem, is that trial dates for prisoners on remand are now being put back for a further three months.

In the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court it is now a weekly occurrence for cases whose date for trial has come to be put back to February 1997. This means it is taking up to 15 months from the date of the offence for accused persons to be tried. When this delay is allied to the two year delay for rape and murder trials in the Central Criminal Court, one can see that the system of criminal procedure is quickly being reduced to a shambles. In May 1996, there were 18 murder and 46 rape cases on the Central Criminal Court list. Fifty-one of these cases were withdrawn without a trial date being fixed. In the Bar Council journal, the Bar Review, an editorial dated June 1996 stated: “The problem has been identified and the solutions suggested. Only the political will to implement the reforms is awaited.”

It can be adjudged that since the Minister for Justice cannot get the fundamentals right, it is difficult to see how she can get more complex issues right. While there can be little excuse for the Minister's inactivity in the area of court procedure, there can be none for not implementing practical measures to minimise the risk of suicides among our prison population. It should be the norm that information on sentenced prisoners and those remanded in custody is available. At present, the only information available about a new prisoner is that outlined on the legal warrant, with whatever information the prisoner chooses to provide. This presents a serious difficulty for prison staff.

A proper medical and psychiatric assessment process prior to imprisonment should be implemented without delay. Further, the transfer of prisoners in Wheatfield Prison to other prisons to make way for those remanded in custody would amount to the pragmatic and inexpensive establishment of a remand centre, which is clearly badly needed. The risk of incarcerating prisoners on remand with habitual criminals cannot be underestimated. This applies to young people in particular.

The Minister must rise to the challenge and conduct a root and branch analysis of the reason for the number of tragic deaths in our prisons. The statement by the Minister that it should come as no surprise that a rise in the number of suicides in society should be reflected in the rise in the number of suicides in prisons displays a breathtaking lack of compassion and is reminiscent of the ambivalence which she displays when addressing other areas in her brief. When addressing the issue of suicide in prison, the Minister is speaking about human life and glib, secondhand excuses to get the Minister off the hook represent a sad indictment of the inadequacy of her philosophy.

Mr. Deenihan

I wish to express, on behalf of the Minister, her deep concern at any loss of life in prisons and particularly death by suicide. Every such death is a tragedy not just for the family, relatives and friends of the deceased but also for the prison service. The Minister extends her sympathy to the family of the deceased.

There are elaborate strategies in place for the prevention of suicides in prisons and the Minister intends to do everything she can to support them. However, unless there is to be a total denial of personal privacy to prisoners at all times, the possibility of suicides in custody cannot be prevented, no more than it can be prevented in the wider community.

The Minister keeps under review the preventative measures currently in place to deter suicides. She recently established a national steering group under the chairmanship of a senior prison governor to oversee the local suicide awareness groups which exist in the various institutions. The steering group, which met for the first time yesterday, includes in its membership some of the most experienced representatives of prison management and staff and medical practitioners who are now involved in prison management. The steering group has also been assigned the task of reviewing and overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory Group on Prison Deaths published in 1991. It will also provide a forum for collating the reports of the local suicide awareness groups within the institutions and disseminating significant findings or lessons learned throughout the prison system. Trends in prison suicide in other countries and strategies used for their prevention will also be examined and any lessons learned from them will be taken on board.

I understand that 50 of the 57 recommendations of the Advisory Group on Prison Deaths, which reported in Auguest 1991, have been or are in the course of being implemented. The report of the advisory group is available in the Dáil library. I also understand that last week the Minister explained to Deputies in the Dáil the nature of the seven outstanding recommendations and that these are for consideration in the longer term.

All deaths which take place in custody are the subject of a public inquiry in the form of a coroner's inquest. The circumstances of each death in custody are also examined by the suicide awareness group in each prison. The examinations carried out by these groups cover the background and circumstances of each death. Their objective is to identify, where possible, measures which might be taken in the future to contribute to the prevention of tragic deaths of this nature. This is an important mechanism for absorbing the lessons to be learned in each case.

There are also procedures in place for identifying and monitoring offenders at special risk. Such offenders are usually placed under special observation. However, we cannot escape the fact that where an offender is determined to take his or her life — and not infrequently there is no prior warning of any such intent — the scope for prevention is limited. The Advisory Group on Prison Deaths acknowledged in chapter 4 of its report that it has to be accepted that if a person is sufficiently determined to take his or her own life it is virtually impossible to prevent them. Suicide is not a completely preventable act in a free society or in a prison system which accords any respect to the personal dignity and privacy of prisoners.

I wish to deal with the death of the young person who is the subject of this Adjournment debate. The deceased was committed to St. Patrick's Institution on Saturday, 22 June last, charged with possession of a knife and was remaded in custody to appear at Dublin District Court 4 on Thursday, 27 June. He was reasonably well known to staff and was placed, with all other remands, in the B wing of St. Patrick's Institution. He was placed on special observations, along with four others on the same landing, as he was on medication for detoxification purposes. He had commenced this course of medication on committal to prison and it was administered to prevent physical distress. On Sunday, 23 June the deceased was not showing any signs of physical or personal distress. Earlier that day the deceased had asked the chaplain to let his parents know where he was, and the chaplain did so.

As a special observation prisoner, the deceased was checked in his cell by staff every 15 minutes. He was checked by an officer at 9.55 p.m. and the officer found nothing amiss. When an officer checked him again at 10.08 p.m. the offender was found hanging from the cell window. He was immediately attended to by staff who tried to revive him. He was taken to the Mater Hospital at 10.15 p.m. and was pronounced dead in the casualty department at 10.25 p.m.

The death of the unfortunate young man will be the subject of a public inquiry in the form of an inquest. The circumstances of the death have also been examined by the suicide awareness group in St. Patrick's Institution. The governor has advised that he has examined the circumstances surrounding the death and is satisfied that the staff made every effort they could to save the deceased. The Minister is also satisfied that there is nothing more that could have been done to prevent this tragic loss of life.

On the demands for a separate remand facility, in common with the vast majority of remands in custody, the young man who is the subject of this debate had several previous convictions and had previously served prison sentences. He was held with the other remands to St. Patrick's Institution in its B wing which holds 61 new committals-remands at any one time. All prisons try, as far as possible, to keep remands and new committals apart from other prisoners for operational and management reasons. For example, in Mountjoy Prison, remands and new committals are generally held in its B division which holds up to 120 prisoners at a time. One of the reasons these categories of prisoners are held apart as far as possible from other prisoners is to enable staff to keep a special watch on them in case they experience distress in the earlier stages of custody. Four other prisoners in St. Patrick's Institution on the same landing as this young man were under "special observation" which means they were checked every 15 minutes during the night.

The Minister is aware of the benefits attached to having a separate remand prison or institution and will keep the matter under active review. Such a remand facility can be provided only in the context of additional prison accommodation generally and the provision of that accommodation is being given priority at present.