Ahead of a coronial inquest, lawyers for Steven Freeman's family are looking into the role an untreated brain injury played in his death.
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The 25-year-old Indigenous man died in his cell in the Alexander Maconochie Centre on May 25, 2016, a year after he was bashed nearly to death while on remand in the prison on April 28, 2015.
He spent a week in an induced coma following the assault.
An independent review into his death was completed in November, and a week-long coroner's inquest is scheduled from February 27.
The exact cause of Mr Freeman's death has not been made public.
Counsel representing Mr Freeman's family, Bernard Collaery, told the ACT Coroner's Court on Monday his office was seeking expert advice on whether a person's gag reflex might be depressed as a result of "neurological deficit" following untreated brain injuries. They were also seeking advice on the effects a dose of methadone might have on an "opiate naive" person, for example, by causing them to vomit.
Key questions the inquest will consider are Mr Freeman's opioid toxicity in the lead-up to his death, his admission to the prison methadone program, and whether guards properly monitored Mr Freeman in his cell in the hours prior to his death.
On Monday, Mr Collaery flagged another question - an alleged failure to deal with and treat Mr Freeman's neurological injury in prison.
He said the medical literature suggested methadone should not be prescribed in circumstances where there was neurological injury.
In the directions hearing on Monday, the ACT government also won an interim order to have parts of interviews with corrections officers and prison policies relevant to the inquest suppressed.
Mr Collaery opposed the suppression order.
He argued that much of the material was already available publicly in legislative documents published online, and much was common knowledge among prisoners and lawyers.
But the court heard there were also existing restrictions made by the government on information the public could access in relation to the prison policies and procedures.
And counsel representing the ACT government, Ken Archer, said the redacted parts of the corrections officers' interviews related to the policies and operating procedures subject to those existing restrictions.
In one interview this amounted to 38 pages of suppressed material.
On Monday, Mr Collaery also raised concerns the government had unilaterally applied to the court to obtain for testing a sample of Mr Freeman's hair, without first consulting with the man's family.
He said seeking family advice on these matters was a recommendation in the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Mr Lawton said the sample was requested because analysing of hair can reveal a picture of a person's drug use over a period of time.
Coroner Robert Cook ordered the testing go ahead. He said it was relevant, and would go to proving or disproving questions around the presence of drugs in Mr Freeman's system leading up to his death.
The matter will return in January, when Mr Cook said the court could hear Mr Collaery's objections to the suppression orders.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said Ken Archer was counsel assisting the Coroner. James Lawton is counsel assisting in this matter.
