14/02/2012
Offenders Service 'Censured' Over Prison Suicide
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has been given a formal Crown Censure from the Health and Safety Executive over the death of a prisoner at HMP Bullingdon in Bicester, Oxfordshire.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, Daniel Rooney (also known as John Hughes) was awaiting sentence.
At about 7.45pm he was found by a prison officer with a noose around his neck trying to tie it around a light fitting. A senior officer identified that Mr Rooney was at-risk of suicide and/or self-harm and as part of the additional support measures he was placed in a cell which was identified to be a ‘safer cell’ at about 8pm.
During the following 40 minutes he was observed by prison staff on three separate occasions the last of which was between 8.40pm and 8.45pm when he was found hanging with a ligature, made from his bedding and fixed to a shower rail support bracket.
The bracket had been fitted to the wall using screws strong enough to support a ligature made from bedding in the cell. The brackets should have been attached to the wall with fixings that were not as strong to support the ligature used by Mr Rooney. The post mortem gave cause of death as “Hanging”.
HSE’s director for its Southern Division, Heather Bryant, who took the Censure hearing said: “This was an unnecessary tragedy and shows that all refurbishment programmes need to be adequately controlled. The standard in this cell was far below what is appropriate for those vulnerable prisoners in a safer cell.”
Examination of the ‘safer cell’ after the death identified several points where ligatures could be attached.
Investigations conducted by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the Coroner were unable to prove when the shower rail was installed, who installed it, who authorised its installation or who checked it had been fitted in an appropriate way in a ‘safer cell’.
HSE’s investigating inspector, Matthew Lee, said: “NOMS is fully aware of issues relating to self-inflicted deaths of prisoners. In the years 2007 – 2009 the average number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons was 69 per year.
"The most common method was by hanging, which represented 91 per cent of all self-inflicted deaths. As such, the defendant should have had a more robust system for ensuring the risk was adequately controlled at HMP Bullingdon."
(DW)
According to the Health and Safety Executive, Daniel Rooney (also known as John Hughes) was awaiting sentence.
At about 7.45pm he was found by a prison officer with a noose around his neck trying to tie it around a light fitting. A senior officer identified that Mr Rooney was at-risk of suicide and/or self-harm and as part of the additional support measures he was placed in a cell which was identified to be a ‘safer cell’ at about 8pm.
During the following 40 minutes he was observed by prison staff on three separate occasions the last of which was between 8.40pm and 8.45pm when he was found hanging with a ligature, made from his bedding and fixed to a shower rail support bracket.
The bracket had been fitted to the wall using screws strong enough to support a ligature made from bedding in the cell. The brackets should have been attached to the wall with fixings that were not as strong to support the ligature used by Mr Rooney. The post mortem gave cause of death as “Hanging”.
HSE’s director for its Southern Division, Heather Bryant, who took the Censure hearing said: “This was an unnecessary tragedy and shows that all refurbishment programmes need to be adequately controlled. The standard in this cell was far below what is appropriate for those vulnerable prisoners in a safer cell.”
Examination of the ‘safer cell’ after the death identified several points where ligatures could be attached.
Investigations conducted by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the Coroner were unable to prove when the shower rail was installed, who installed it, who authorised its installation or who checked it had been fitted in an appropriate way in a ‘safer cell’.
HSE’s investigating inspector, Matthew Lee, said: “NOMS is fully aware of issues relating to self-inflicted deaths of prisoners. In the years 2007 – 2009 the average number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons was 69 per year.
"The most common method was by hanging, which represented 91 per cent of all self-inflicted deaths. As such, the defendant should have had a more robust system for ensuring the risk was adequately controlled at HMP Bullingdon."
(DW)
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