He was not subjected to the number of checks he should have been, a report has found
A prisoner took his own life less than 24 hours after being incarcerated at HMP Bristol having been neglected by prison officers, a new report has found(Image: BristolLive)
A prisoner took his own life less than 24 hours into a stint at HMP Bristol after prison staff neglected him despite his risk of self-harm, a new report has revealed. Colin Ryan, 53, was taken to jail on a threatening behaviour charge on January 28, 2023.
When Ryan was booked into the prison at around 3.30 pm, the reception staff who admitted him noted he was distressed and threatening to take his own life. “He was struggling to come to terms with being in prison,” a recently-published report into his death said.
As a result, Ryan was placed under an intensive monitoring schedule – known as Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) – which should have led to him being checked on three times an hour.
The thrice-hourly observations were carried out successfully until 7.43am on January 29, but then they stopped. Ryan was discovered “slumped to the floor” in his cell at around 8.50am, meaning there was a period of around an hour in which he was not checked.
Prison staff and paramedics tried to resuscitate him with CPR but he was pronounced dead at 9.23am. Ryan had been in prison before but had been out of trouble for over 25 years prior to his death.
The prison officer responsible for Ryan was suspended pending during the investigation into the death. However, he resigned before any disciplinary action could take place.
At the time of his death, Ryan was the eighth prisoner to die at Bristol prison since 2020. There have been at least four more self-inflicted deaths at the prison since Ryan died.
In one ten-month period alone, seven prisoners took their own lives. A damning July 2023 report into the prison led to then-Prisons Minister Damian Hinds describing conditions at the facility as “completely unacceptable”.
Less than two months after Ryan died, 60-year-old Keith Gadd took his own life having been in jail for thirteen years longer than his original tariff. Gadd was serving an indefinite jail term with an original sentence of three years and five months.
Indefinite terms, also known as imprisonment for public protection (IPP) terms, were scrapped in 2012. However, that was not applied retrospectively, meaning anyone who was serving such a term at the time they were abolished — such as Gadd — was not granted a reprieve.
The Ombudsman’s report into Ryan’s death — published on October 3 but written in July 2024 — urged for improvements to be made to the prison’s approach to ACCT cases.
“I understand that due to the number of self-inflicted deaths at Bristol in the last 12 months, the prison has been receiving additional support and training on managing suicide and self-harm monitoring procedures,” the ombudsman’s report read. “The Prison Group Director needs to satisfy himself that these measures have addressed the ongoing issues.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said a number of measures had been introduced to improve the situation at HMP Bristol since Ryan’s death, including the recruitment of extra staff.
“We accept the Ombudsman’s findings and have already made important changes to better support prisoners at risk of self-harm or suicide at HMP Bristol,” a Prison Service spokesperson said.
“The prison has recruited more staff, introduced tighter checks, and improved training to make sure vulnerable prisoners get the care and monitoring they need.”