A shocking 25 inmates were found hanging in their cells in apparent suicides in Scotland’s prisons in just three years.
Five of them had not been convicted and were on remand.
The Sunday Mail can reveal a massive project was looked at in 2019 to implement suicide prevention measures in all cells in our publicly run jails at a cost of £155million.
It would have created a “ligature-free environment” in all 13 Scottish Prison Service (SPS) jails, costing
up to £40,000 per cell.
It’s understood that while some safety work has been done, the entire project hasn’t got off the ground due to cost.
Linda Allan, whose daughter Katie, 21, took her own life in Polmont young offenders’ institution in 2018, said: “There has been no accountability for these avoidable deaths in custody.
"It would seem acceptable to politicians that individuals, often not even convicted, die in state care.”
Linda’s lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “They should be honest with families like those of Katie Allan and tell them they are unwilling to spend money on saving lives.”
He added: “Until the SPS faces criminal sanctions for repeated abuses of duty of care, nothing will change.”
Uni student Katie – jailed for 16 months after injuring a teenager while drunk-driving – is alleged to have been bullied by inmates and strip-searched by staff, who failed to act on her self-harm.
The size of the work for the anti-ligature measures was in a report by the SPS in 2019, which was obtained by the Allan family under Freedom of Information rules.
It said older jails such as Barlinnie would cost most to improve, at about £40,500 per cell.
The report was deemed to be an “exercise” in cost.
Linda and husband Stuart co-published a report on the system for probing deaths in custody last year with the University of Glasgow which found it was not fit for purpose.
It also found dozens of families were waiting for Fatal Accident Inquiries.
Suicide inquiries took longest to complete, at 25 months on average.
Of 16 suicide inquiries, all took their own lives within six months of being in custody – three in 24 hours.
The majority had mental health needs and more than half had a history of suicide bids, yet fewer than a third were put on observation.
The SPS was unavailable for comment.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
