Prison staff watch as a prisoner self harms

[Nessie]

Number one news story on the BBC at the moment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37356505

"Prison staff who watched but failed to intervene as a mentally ill prisoner blinded himself and injured his groin area have been strongly criticised.
A report by the Prisoner Ombudsman has said Sean Lynch inflicted "extreme and shocking" self-harm over three days.
The 23-year-old was held in Maghaberry Prison, a high security jail.
The report said on the final day, two prison officers watched as he injured himself on more than 20 occasions in an "ordeal" that last for over an hour.
Prison officers "directly observed" the inmate for more than a quarter of the time, the report added."

The prisoner was clearly in distress. I am not sure what the background to his self harming was, but to just stand and watch, outrageous.

Surly that is not normal to just watch prisoners harm themselves. Would they also not intervene if the prisoner tried to kill himself?

 

[P.J. Denyer]

It sounds as though there was a gross dereliction of the officer's duty of care toward the inmate but there may be extenuating circumstances, the article does say that he had seriously injured another officer during a previous incident, so my first question would be why they didn't have/didn't believe they had sufficient numbers of officers avaliable to restrain him safely. The next question would be why the prisoner was in a prison rather than a secure mental facility (although I think I can make a guess on that one).

 

[Nessie]

The article suggests a one off incident due to the extreme actions of the prisoner. I find that rather suspect, especially since there appears to be no training or operating procedure as to what to do when any prisoner self harms or attempts suicide.

Do we have no training for the prison service elsewhere in the UK? What about the police, is there no training or operating procedure for them? Would the police just stand by and watch?

 

[casebro]

Strait jackets. And yes, attendants will get hurt putting patient into them. Training would help. But doesn't society weigh a torn rotator cuff vs blindness?

Perhaps S.G. will weigh in here, she has some experience in mental wards- as a nurse, not a patient. Or B.Strong, a cop ought to have pertinant info too.

 

[Nessie]

The police have been widely criticised for cuffing and restraining children to stop those who self harm or are violent. I would rather that took place than just standing back, watching and doing nothing.