Terminally ill prisoner died in custody after delays processing request for compassionate release
Doctors had asked that the 56-year-old be allowed to spend his remaining time at home, but these repeated requests had not been processed by the time he died three months later
A terminally ill prisoner died in custody instead of spending his last days at home following delays in processing an application for compassionate temporary release, an investigation has found.
A doctor at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise wrote to a governor three times under the Irish Prison Rules in August, September and October 2021, requesting that the inmate be released on medical grounds so “he could spend his remaining life in a dignified manner”.
However, this request was not processed and forwarded to the Department of Justice in time, and the 56-year-old remained in the prison until November 15, 2021, when he was admitted to Midlands Regional Hospital, where he died the next day.
READ MORE: Prisoner, 34, found dead in cell after consuming sleeping pills and homemade 'hooch'
The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has introduced an End of Life Ethical Framework since the man’s death, which provides for personalised care with a “core focus” on dignity.
The deceased, who is survived by his mother and siblings, had been committed to the Midlands Prison in 2010, where he was serving a life sentence, according to an investigation report by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP).
He began experiencing health issues in September 2020, when he reported suffering from back pain and generalised headaches. He attended hospital on a number of occasions and was diagnosed with multiple pulmonary embolisms and a liver lesion in July 2021.
Upon his return to prison from hospital, he was diagnosed with Covid-19 and placed in isolation. The following month, he was also diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
A CT scan that month confirmed that he had progressive pulmonary embolism and was not a candidate for curative surgery. In September, he was also diagnosed with advanced liver cancer and was given just a couple of months to live.
The OIP investigation found that a doctor at the Midlands Hospital had written to a governor three times under Rule 105 of the Irish Prison Rules, advising that the inmate was unlikely to live until the expiration of his sentence, and asking that he be released on medical grounds.
Prison authorities discussed the possibility of transferring him to Cork Prison, but he did not wish to avail of this option. They also considered moving him to his own home or a nursing home.
A prison doctor was eventually asked to start making arrangements for local palliative care services in the community to facilitate the man’s release, but this had not been processed by November 2021 and the Department of Justice never received a request to approve the decision.
The prisoner contracted Covid-19 for a second time in four months in November 2021 and was placed in isolation again. A nurse found him “disoriented, very lethargic and experiencing shortness of breath” in his cell on November 15 and he was moved to hospital. His condition deteriorated and he died the following day.
In its report, the OIP recommended that the IPS take all necessary steps to ensure that any future recommendations from prison doctors are processed more promptly, including by transmitting them to the Department of Justice.
“In all circumstances in which a doctor advises a governor in writing that Rule 105… applies, expeditious efforts should be made by the governor, the IPS and/or the Department of Justice to arrange for the compassionate release of the prisoner concerned,” it stated.
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