"One of the huge problems is the lack of information available with so many committals. The awful truth is we knew very little about her," Mr John Lonergan, the governor of Mountjoy admitted yesterday.
"We depend on the people coming in to tell us their details and if they won't give us their address or next-of-kin or give us untruths, we can do nothing. All we have is the information on the warrant, which is often useless," he added.
The 38-year-old woman who entered the Dochas women's wing of Mountjoy prison on August 7th, charged with a public order offence, repeatedly answered "none" when asked details of her next-of-kin and address.
She had been charged with refusing to follow out a lawful instruction when a garda from the Bridewell requested her to move on from a location on the North Circular Road.
She did not give the arresting garda an address and it appeared she was homeless.
"If you were dealing with an under-age person, you have rights to find out their details but when you're dealing with an adult they make their own choices. It is very frustrating because when something goes wrong you need that information fast," added Mr Lonergan.
The woman appeared in the district court on August 14th and was remanded to appear again next Monday. According to a prison services spokesman, she had never been in prison before.
"There is a question over whether she should have been there at all and whether she should have been given bail or placed in a local psychiatric unit, but, if people are committed to prison they must be accommodated," he added.
When she was found in her cell shortly after 9 p.m. on Monday night, the help of the Garda was needed to locate and notify her family. She had been discovered face down and unconscious with a ligature around her neck.
The woman had been under close observation as staff had recognised her depressed state and put her in a room in the health care centre which is staffed 24 hours a day.
She had also had three visits from psychiatrists, one of which occurred earlier in the day she decided to take her own life, and she was receiving medical treatment.
Gardai succeeded in tracing the family of the woman who went to the nearby Mater hospital, where their relative was on a life-support machine, however she never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on Tuesday afternoon.
It is understood the family, originally from the North Strand area of North Dublin, were upset by reports that she had previously attempted suicide and requested her name not to be released to the media.
The suicide is the third in Irish prisons this year but the first to occur in the new women's wing in Mountjoy which opened a year ago.
The prison's suicide awareness group and the Garda will examine the death and it will be subject to a coroner's inquest.
Mr Lonergan yesterday said the woman had been very well supported within the prison system but her death highlighted the fact that the finest facilities failed to insulate a prisoner from his or her depression, emotional anxiety or sadness.
He said an average of two or three attempted suicide in Mountjoy every month.
"We also regularly have people coming in who are homeless and perhaps because they have behavioural difficulties, are not being accepted into hostels. There is an absolute lack for facilities to pick up people like that and this fact must be highlighted," he added.