The parents of Katie Allan have slammed the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) after it emerged suicide rates have increased by 42 per cent since the introduction of a preventative scheme.
Linda and Stuart Allan, whose daughter took her own life at Polmont in 2018, have hit out after a new report from Glasgow University found there have been 121 deaths in prison in Scotland since the start of 2022, with suicide and drugs deaths on the rise and the death rate higher than in England.
Researchers found that from September 2020 to this year there were 29 deaths from suicide, 25 from drugs (with a further eight whose cause is undetermined), 15 to coronavirus, 42 attributed to 'other' causes such as medical conditions and two homicides.
It compares to 98 deaths in Scottish prisons in the previous three full years. Authors of the report acknowledged the impact of covid, however said the rise in suicide and drugs fatalities had been the most significant.
The report states that suicides have increased by 42 per cent since the introduction of the SPS's preventative suicide strategy.
Linda and Stuart Allan, who helped author the report, have raised questions around the efficacy of the SPS’s preventative suicide strategy called ‘Talk to Me’.
Linda said: "As with last year’s review, time and time again the Crown Office are not presenting systemic failures. From the narrow focus of individual cases where prisoners say they have no thoughts of self-harm and appear otherwise well to non-mental health professionals was sufficient for Sheriffs to conclude a person was at no risk of suicide, often despite many other markers of risk including previous attempts of suicide and recent life changing events."
According to the report authors someone who was imprisoned this year would be twice as likely to pass away in jail as someone who was sentenced in 2008.
The figures in Still Nothing to See Here? come following another report which looked at around 200 Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAI) in deaths in prison over a 15-year period.
The report by the same authors discovered that 90 per cent of cases Sheriff’s determined nothing could be done to prevent or foresee the prisoner’s death.
Still Nothing to See Here? states: "The analysis of this public data raises some significant questions about the quality and contribution of the only public system of death investigation in Scotland for those who die in the state’s custody, and one wonders how Scotland’s high level of death in prison can be addressed without regular oversight of deaths or the system of investigating them."
While, Stuart said: "The lack of corrective of findings in Fatal Accident Inquiries underpins the absence of accountability. This is important for families seeking their legal right of redress.
"Whilst the SPS (Scottish Ministers) are immune from prosecution under the Health and Safety Act, it is difficult to see where the motivation for change will come from, given our current FAI system. It only compounds our belief that those who find themselves in the care of the state, are neglected and forgotten about."
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We recognise the profound emotional distress experienced by families when a loved one dies in custody.
“Our vision is for people within our care to have the best possible health and wellbeing and, where mental health problems do occur, that they get the respect, support, treatment, and care they require.
“We work closely with NHS partners to develop individualised plans, and provide contact with Samaritans, where trained Listeners provide additional support. Talk To Me, developed in partnership with experts in suicide prevention, provides person-centred care for those most at risk.
“We are working with partner agencies to deliver overdose awareness activities, recovery cafes, and wider support services.
“During the Covid pandemic we implemented a “Prison 2 Rehab” pathway, giving people access to rehabilitation programmes directly from the point of liberation.
“And the introduction of photocopying of mail has led to a significant fall in both incidents of drug-taking, and emergency ambulance calls related to substance misuse.
“We also have increasing numbers of older people in our care, with the same health and care challenges as seen in the wider community, and high levels of health inequalities faced by our population as a whole.”
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