United Kingdom: Northern Ireland prison system fatalities double in a year

The number of deaths in the prison system has doubled in the past year.

In 2016 six inmates in Northern Ireland prisons died, compared with just three the previous year.

All but two of the nine deaths in custody in the last two years have been due to suicide or suspected suicide.

So far this year, Northern Ireland’s only maximum-security prison, Maghaberry, has recorded all of the deaths which occurred across the entire system. This represents a three-fold increase in fatalities at the facility compared to 2015.

In the past four years, a total of fourteen prisoners have died in the north’s three prisons: Maghaberry, Hydebank Wood and Magilligan.

On November 30, a 34-year-old remand prisoner became the third fatality in Maghaberry in the space of a month, prompting calls for prison reform from several MLAs.

Just two weeks previously, convicted murderer Barry Cavan took his own life at the high-security facility. He was three years into a 13-year sentence for the killing of 24-year-old busker David Corr in 2013.

On November 5, Belfast man Gerard Mulligan, 44, died by suicide in Maghaberry. He was awaiting trial for the alleged murder of his father in September.

Ulster Unionist MLA Robin Swann said the statistics reflect the pressure the prison system is under.

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