SUMMARIES OF SELECTED STATEMENTS
Finally, the Ombudsman found it regrettable that a text message from the
Chief of Defence to the Minister of Defence had not been registered to the case
by the time of the decision, as a result of which the question of access to the
message was not considered until later.
On reconsidering the case, the Ministry of Defence granted the journalist access
to further information.
F. MINISTRY OF JUSTICE
The following statements on cases concluded in 2015 have been published:
2015-7. Demands on the investigation of cases about deaths at
Prison and Probation Service institutions
By agreement with the Department of the Prison and Probation Service, the
Ombudsman is informed about the outcome of the Department’s investigations
in all cases regarding deaths, suicides, attempted suicides and other suicidal
or self-harming behaviour among inmates at institutions under the Prison and
Probation Service.
The Ombudsman assesses whether the Department and the institutions have
acted contrary to applicable law or otherwise have been guilty of errors or dereliction in connection with such incidents. The Ombudsman considers, among
other things, whether the institution and the Department have undertaken a
sufficient investigation of the incidents.
In a specific case, a prison inmate was found dead in his cell. After an analysis
of a syringe and a hypodermic needle, the Department of Forensic Medicine
reached the conclusion that the inmate had died from an intravenous injection
of heroin/morphine. However, investigations carried out by the prison and the
Department of the Prison and Probation Service did not include any information about a syringe and a hypodermic needle having been found.
Following an enquiry from the Ombudsman, the Department of the Prison and
Probation Service stated that prison officer trainees had found the syringe and
the hypodermic needle by chance 10 days after the incident. The syringe and
the hypodermic needle had not been part of the prison’s and the Department of
the Prison and Probation Service’s investigation of the case. The syringe and the
hypodermic needle had merely been included in the Department of Forensic
Medicine’s investigation of the death.
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