Over the last 10 years, death rates in prison have steadily risen
It is more than three years since her daughter Katie Allan died in Polmont Young Offenders Institute but the years have not eased her despair and anger at the needless loss.
Katie, 21, took her life in 2018, after being bullied inside Polmont and mother Linda believes she was terribly failed by a system that is more interested in protecting itself from criticism than helping save lives of prisoners. She welcomes the report but
– as she waits for a Fatal Accident Inquiry into her daughter’s death almost four years on – questions why it only looked at what happens after a prisoner dies and not what might be done to save them.
She said: “We have conducted our own research into deaths in prison and the figures get worse every time you look at them, with around 40 deaths in prisons already this year alone.
“We feel that the report has missed the fundamental issue; in the past 10 years, since the NHS took over healthcare in prisons, the death rates have steadily risen. There needs to be a radical overhaul of healthcare provision in prisons. We welcome the review but it remains to be seen what it delivers. We need urgent action which can change things and stop people dying.
“We were interviewed as part of the report and overall the review team have done a good job.
However, a problem from the start was what the report was to look at, which was only into the aftermath of deaths in custody. We couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t want to look also at the prevention of such deaths.
“It was also described as an independent review but we had grave concerns as the co-authors are with three organisations which receive funding from the Scottish Government. Our concern is that it will be an exercise which ends up gathering dust on the shelf.”
Katie died while serving a 16-month term for a drink-driving accident. She failed to stop and was later arrested.
Her mother said her long and continuing attempts to secure answers over her death have so far failed to secure significant information.
“There is an issue about a culture of secrecy within the Scottish Prison Service and a lack of transparency and this report underlines this. Staff are institutionalised and until you change the culture, the situation won’t improve.
“A further concern would be that new inquiries which are being proposed could actually delay Fatal Accident Inquiries, although FAIS are already so slow that this might not happen. And if the new investigating organisation isn’t resourced properly it isn’t likely to succeed.
“We are almost at four years since Katie’s death and there is still no date for an FAI, although this in part is delayed as we are still awaiting a final decision on whether there may be a criminal case, for example for corporate homicide or under health and safety legislation.
“We have to make sense of our daughter’s death and the deaths of all of these other people. We feel such frustration about the lack of progress and the lack of improvement.”