MINISTERS have pledged to take urgent action to address the “spiralling epidemic” of suicides in Scotland's prisons following the deaths of two young people.
Katie Allan, 21, killed herself at Polmont Young Offenders' Institution in June, while vulnerable 16-year-old William Lindsay was found dead within 48 hours of being remanded at the same facility last month.
Ms Allan’s parents have now called for an independent review of deaths in custody in Scottish jails.
Stuart and Linda Allan, together with lawyer Aamer Anwar, met Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf to plead for urgent changes to be made.
Addressing MSPs later, Mr Yousaf insisted “any death of a young person is a tragedy for the individual and their family”.
He said a mandatory fatal accident inquiry (FAI) will now be carried out, but added: “However I am determined that appropriate early actions are taken to ensure the safety and wellbeing of young people in custody.”
Katie Allan, a Glasgow University student, was sentenced to 16 months after hitting and injuring a teenage boy while over the legal drink-drive limit.
It came despite the 15-year-old’s family pleading with the judge not to jail her, and a social services report recommending community service.
Her grieving family paid tribute to a “compassionate, kind, intelligent and hard-working” daughter.
Mr Allan said: "It's so important that people who go into the care system and people who go into prison, they are treated with respect and humanity.
"We have witnessed what happened to Katie; we don't want that to happen to anybody else."
He said the family had used the talks with Mr Yousaf to highlight the "catastrophic failings within the criminal justice system".
Mr Anwar claimed there may have been as many as 12 suicides in Scottish jails this year, adding this would represent the "worst rate of suicides for over a decade".
He said: “There was nothing inevitable about William and Katie taking their own lives; it was clear to anybody that cared to look that they were vulnerable and at risk of taking their own lives.
“Locking people up in dungeons of despair doesn’t rehabilitate anyone. It institutionalises violence and increases the risk of suicide.
“The families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay hold the Scottish Prison Service, the health service and care system directly responsible for their deaths and they will fight to ensure that other lives can be saved.”
Mr Anwar insisted the FAI system was “broken”, with a lack of funding and delays stretching on for years.
He added: “A civilised society is judged by the manner in which we treat our vulnerable, the weak, the dispossessed and our prisoners. We believe Scotland is failing the test.”
The solicitor demanded an immediate inspection of the young offenders’ institution at Polmont.
He also claimed neither the Crown Office nor the SPS had "bothered" to contact Mr Lindsay's mother, Christine, following his death.
Mr Yousaf said he was “reflecting very carefully” on how the criminal justice system deals with young people.
He added: “We will not wait for an FAI – where there are learnings to be made immediately and in the short-term, we will look to make those.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish Liberal Democrats urged an end to the “interminable waits” some families face before FAIs are carried out.
The party’s justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: "There have been 76 deaths in prison that have yet to be the subject of an FAI. This stretches back to six deaths in 2014.
"Journalist Kenneth Roy, who sadly passed away last week, rightly labelled it a ‘catalogue of delay and obfuscation’.
"No family, including those of Katie Allan and William Lindsay, should ever have to go through such an interminable wait to find out what happened.
“These delayed fatal accident inquiries are preventing lessons being learned and putting lives at risk."
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