So, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) has some thoughts on how to handle notifying families of inmates when things go south. It all started when the daughter of a 48-year-old man, who passed away while in custody, got a call about his death while she was cruising down the road. The poor guy had been dealing with an irregular heartbeat for three years before he got locked up in 2019, along with some serious mental health issues. The kicker? He wasn’t even taking any heart meds at the time of his passing. Instead, he was on antipsychotic meds, methadone, and stuff to help with his stomach.
One of the other inmates at Mountjoy Prison, where the man was being held, found him in bad shape in the shower one day in May 2022. He was having trouble breathing, his face was turning gray, and he was basically asking for help. An officer who showed up on the scene said the guy had an inhaler in his hand and was really struggling to catch his breath. He ended up collapsing on the floor, and the healthcare folks had to jump in to help. They called an ambulance, did CPR, and rushed him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead not long after.
Now, here’s where things get a bit messy. The prison chaplain tried to reach out to the man’s next of kin after he passed, but when they got to the address on file, no one was living there. So, they ended up calling the daughter while she was out driving. The OIP thinks prisons should reach out to the family soon after someone gets locked up to get their info and make sure it’s up to date. Seems like common sense, right? But the Irish Prison Service (IPS) doesn’t want to deal with the extra work. They say it would be too much of a hassle. Classic bureaucracy move, am I right?
The OIP also suggested that the IPS should make it easier for inmates’ families to update their contact info. Like, maybe set up an email address or something. The IPS said they’d think about it, but they already do regular checks to make sure they have the right contact details. So, who knows if anything will actually change.
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