An inquest jury has recommended that prisoners who express fears and who are put on protection should be covered by CCTV observation cameras.
The inquest concerned a prisoner who was found hanging in a Dublin prison cell. An open verdict was returned.
Michael Rogers (38), South Circular Road, Dublin, was discovered hanging in his cell in Mountjoy prison at 3.30am on August 24th, 2006, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday.
He had been placed on protection the day before when he told staff he feared he was "probably going to get done" after he was assaulted by another prisoner, an inquest heard yesterday.
Mr Rogers, who was described as an upbeat and happy-go-lucky individual by staff members, family members and prisoners, was removed to the Mater hospital where he was pronounced dead. His was the second death at the prison that day, after fellow inmate John Wallace (21), Kilcorral, Castlebridge, Co Wexford,died of methadone intoxication.
An inquest into Mr Rogers's death heard that at about midday on August 23rd, 2006, Mr Rogers told prison officer Joe Delmar he wanted to be put on protection as he had been accused of taking a mobile phone and was "probably going to get done at two o'clock". He later requested a transfer as soon as possible to either Shelton Abbey or Loughan House.
Mr Rogers, who had been assaulted earlier that morning by at least one other prisoner, was immediately transferred to a single protection cell. The next morning, at 3.30am, he was discovered hanging by a sheet from the window of his cell by the night guard, Gordon Bailey.
Det Garda Terence McHugh of Mountjoy Garda station told the court that there were no suspicious circumstances. A postmortem by the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis confirmed that Mr Rogers died of hanging. He had therapeutic level of sedative drugs in his blood at the time of his death, as well as morphine in his urine, a toxicology screening revealed.