Man ‘would not have been saved’ by new monitoring technology, prison death inquest told

A 27-year-old man found dead in his bed in Cork Prison would not have been saved even if a new technology — soon to be piloted — to monitor a prisoner’s vital signs in their cells had already been introduced, an inquest into his death has heard.

Jamie Crowley was being checked every 15 minutes by prison officers looking through the hatch in his cell door at the time of his death on March 14, 2024.

But this would be insufficient to tell if a person lying in bed at night was still breathing, Cork City Coroner’s Court heard.

The new technology is expensive and invasive, bringing potential concerns around human rights and privacy, so it would only be used in specific cells for very vulnerable prisoners, the inquest heard.

There are three of these cells in Cork Prison, and Mr Crowley would not have been deemed vulnerable enough to be in one before his death, the court heard.

Mr Crowley had been hospitalised briefly that morning before his death when he was found with extremely low oxygen levels of only 20%, taking just four breaths per minute. 

However, by the time he reached a hospital he had stabilised, and he was discharged back to Cork Prison that morning.

He was still alive around midnight on the night of March 13 or the morning of March 14. But Mr Crowley collapsed in his bed, eyes rolling, before he finished rolling his cigarette, his cell-mate Richard O’Brien said.

Mr O’Brien said that he thought Mr Crowley had fallen asleep.

When he woke around 7am, he found his cell-mate cold to the touch with no pulse. He had been dead for some time, as rigor mortis had set in, in his hands, and his blood had begun to pool in his torso.

Margot Bolster, assistant state pathologist, said that Mr Crowley’s cause of death was alcohol withdrawal seizures.

A jury returned a verdict of misadventure.