Offaly people with mental health problems 'dumped' into prison

A DISTRICT Court judge has ordered a prison governor and psychiatrist to appear before him to explain why medical reports are not being prepared for people with mental health problems who are in custody on remand.

Judge Andrew Cody said as many as five accused persons, “good decent people who are unwell”, were currently before him at Tullamore District Court awaiting medical reports from Cloverhill Prison and the Dochas Centre, which is the women's prison in Mountjoy.

Judge Cody said even “the dogs in the street” knew the defendants were genuinely unwell and described it as a “disgrace” that they had not received medical attention in the previous three to four weeks.

He referred to the case of one man, a 61-year-old who the judge believes has dementia, who had been “thrown into Cloverhill and left there to rot”.

“Who cares?” asked the judge.

That man appeared before Tullamore District Court from Cloverhill by video link yesterday (Wednesday, January 7) and after confirming who he was, told his solicitor Brian Duffy that a fitness to plead report had neither been completed or commenced.

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Mr Duffy said the report had been sought by the court on a previous occasion and that was why his client had been remanded to appear by video link.

Judge Cody told the man, who is on remand on alleged public order offences, that it was totally unacceptable that he had not received any assessment.

The judge said he was going to direct that witness summonses be issued to Kevin O'Connell, the governor of Cloverhill, and Dr Brenda Wright, psychiatrist, to appear at the sitting of Tullamore District Court on January 14.

“I'm fed up of people being dumped into prison and that's no disrespect to you or anyone else,” added the judge.

He said people were being put into prison because they were unwell and received no treatment there, “not even an assessment”, and told the accused man he was sorry to have to remand him in custody for another week.

At the request of Mr Duffy, the judge attached an order to the remand that the accused's legal aid cover the provision of a report from a forensic psychologist.

Mr Duffy said he was having great difficulty in getting a private psychiatric report himself through the legal aid scheme.

Another man was before the court accused of damaging garda property and Judge Cody (pictured below) noted that even though in his case a medical report had been ordered “as a matter of extreme urgency”, a letter had been received saying he was “not on the case load of the prison”.

That man's defence counsel, David Nugent, BL, said his client had been ignored and described him as an example of people with mental health issues who were “picking up charges and being brought before the court”.

The court heard the man had been in custody since December 18 and had not been seen “by anybody” despite the court ordering a report.

The man was present in the custody area of the District Court having been brought from prison and Judge Cody told him he needed medical treatment and he had to remand him in custody for his own safety and the safety of the gardai.

“But you're not alone, there are about five cases here today who are unwell.” the judge told the man.

A 24-year-old woman who is currently on remand in the Dochas women's prison had also been brought to the District Court.

She has been accused of criminal damage and indicated to the court that she wished to be sentenced to “get this over with”.

Judge Cody said he had previously remanded her in custody because there was a reasonable cause to believe she may be suffering from a mental disorder or acute mental health crisis.

He said she may require in-patient psychiatric treatment and she needed urgent clinical assessment in relation to her fitness to plead and her appropriate care needs.

He said a psychiatric assessment should be facilitated within 12 hours of her admission back into prison and the assessment should then take place within 48 hours.

The woman told the court herself she had been given “sleepers” by the prison staff and she had refused a psychological assessment when it was offered. Her solicitor, Patrick Martin, told the court he was unaware of that.

Judge Cody said he would nonetheless make an order requiring an assessment.

The woman was remanded in custody for a week before another court appearance on January 14 and similar orders were made for the two men.

The judge prohibited the publication of names and addresses of the accused people.