Cover-up claim over Scots jail suicides
● Custody deaths now subject to FAI but many wait two years for answers
Prison bosses have been accused of covering up the number of suicides in custody by the parents of a young woman who took her own life in prison.
The family of Katie Allan said information from the Scottish Prison Service showed that over the past decade, 40 per cent of prisoner deaths were suicides, with suicides now accounting for half of all deaths in custody.
Katie, 21, killed herself at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution last year.
The parents of a young woman who took her own life in prison have accused the authorities of covering up the number of suicides in custody.
The family of Katie Allan reviewed information from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) on 258 prisoner deaths between 2008-18, cross-referencing the statistics with individual death certificates.
Katie, 21, killed herself at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution in June last year just months before the death there of William Lindsay, 16. He took his own life within 48 hours of being remanded there in October – despite being flagged as a suicide risk.
The Allans said their analysis had shown that over the past decade, 40 per cent of prisoner deaths were suicides, with suicides now accounting for half of all deaths in custody against 35 per cent in 2008.
They said: “As we have been trying to come to terms with the death of our daughter and understand the sequence of failures that led to Katie taking her own life, we have been extremely frustrated at the limited amount of information available to the public on deaths in Scottish prisons.
“We have therefore undertaken our own research to try and understand why the SPS take so long to publish their deaths in custody statistics, why the information published is so limited, and why the SPS appear to hide behind the Awaiting Fatal Accident Inquiry statement, to defer release of the prisoner cause of death.”
The family’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said: “The Allan family has no confidence in an SPS which appears more interested in spin and cover-ups.
“They believe an FAI system held on average two years after a suicide is not fit for purpose, set up to fail families and hide what is truly happening.”
Under legislation introduced in 2016, all deaths in custody must now be the subject of a FAI, although a backlog of cases means some families have waited years for an official determination.
A spokesman for the SPS said: “There has been an independent review of mental health provision at Polmont carried out and a full inspection.
“We await any recommendations and will take appropriate action.”