The brother of a young woman who took her own life in a young offenders’ institution has accused the prison system of killing her after as a damning report into her death was released.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the deaths of Katie Allan, 21, and 16-year-old William Brown – also known as William Lindsay – at Young Offenders Institution (YOI) Polmont in 2018 has concluded the tragedies ‘might have been avoided’.
In his determination, published today, Sheriff SG Collins KC described a ‘catalogue of individual and collective failures by prison and healthcare staff’ at the facility.
Ms Allan, a student at Glasgow University, was found dead in her cell on June 4 while serving a 16-month sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The inquiry was told prison staff at Polmont, near Falkirk, did not know that she was vulnerable and had a history of self-harming. She was also bullied and threatened while inside.
Mr Brown, who had been in care repeatedly, was found dead in his cell on October 7, three days after being admitted as there was no space in a children’s secure unit, having walked into a police station with a knife.
And yesterday Ms Allan’s 21-year-old bother Scott accused the prison service of making her ‘too scared to keep living’ saying she was ‘abandoned’ by the system.
He told the BBC: ‘They blatantly murdered her.
‘They tortured her. They defiled her. They destroyed someone and then, when all was said and done, let her have the mercy of death.
‘They didn’t just kill her, they destroyed her.’
The family have always pointed out the Glasgow University student had admitted her offence and apologised to the victim’s family who did not want to see her locked up.
However, she was sent to Polmont and her brother said: ‘She made a mistake and she paid for it with her life.’
The FAI into the two deaths was held at Falkirk Sheriff Court.
In his report, Sheriff Collins said one of the main issues was the effectiveness of the Talk To Me (TTM) suicide prevention strategy, through which at-risk prisoners are subjected to increased observation and checks.
He said Ms Allan had not been considered a ‘risk’ when she was admitted to Polmont and so was not placed on TTM.
However, he said that during her incarceration there was a ‘systemic failure’ by prison staff to complete ‘concern forms’ that could have triggered the TTM process, pointing to a number of red flag incidents recorded by members of staff.
These included, he said, the fact Ms Allan was being bullied by other prisoners, distress caused by hair loss resulting from alopecia, her distress at being body (strip) searched by prison staff, and the failure of her appeal against her conviction.
Her weight also dropped from just over 10st to 9st during her 12 weeks at the facility, which Sheriff Collins said should have been a ’cause for concern’.
Mr Brown, on the other hand, was placed on TTM on admission to Polmont only to be removed from it the next morning, despite presenting as a ‘very high risk’ individual.
Even when ‘further information’ about his level of risk was provided by a social worker later that day, he was not put back on TTM.
Sheriff Collins said: ‘Had Katie been put on TTM on the night of June 3-4, 2018, and had William not been removed from it prior to the night of October 6-7, 2018, there was a realistic possibility that their deaths might have been avoided.’
The sheriff also described as ‘defective’ the systems for sharing information between the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and other bodies, including courts and external agencies, about prisoner risk.
And he found issues with the way risk assessment information was recorded on prison systems.
This meant, he said: ‘There was no single, readily accessible source of all the information relevant to Katie’s risk of suicide which was available to SPS staff in Polmont.’
He added that the deaths could have been prevented if ‘reasonable precautions’ had been taken around the safety of cells, including the carrying out of regular checks to identify potential risks.
This would, he said, ‘restrict’ the level of risk to inmate safety, ‘whether or not they are subject to TTM’.
His report, which runs to more than 400 pages, sets out 25 recommendations ‘which might realistically prevent other deaths in similar circumstances’.
Sheriff Collins concluded: ‘In common with all the participants in the inquiry, I offer my condolences to the families of Katie and William.
‘I would wish to particularly acknowledge the contributions of Linda and Stuart Allan, at least one of whom attended every day of the inquiry, and whose dignity and courage were evident throughout.’
An SPS spokesman said: ‘Our thoughts remain with the families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay.
‘We are committed to doing everything we can to support people and keep them safe during one of the most challenging and vulnerable periods of their life.
‘We are grateful to Sheriff Collins for his recommendations, which we will now carefully consider before responding further.’
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: ‘My deepest sympathies and condolences are with the families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay, who have lost a child and sibling.
‘I am deeply sorry about their deaths and that their families have had to wait so long for the conclusion of this process.
‘I fully appreciate that this has been an arduous process and will have compounded the trauma and distress of the families.
‘Deaths from suicide in custody are as tragic as they are preventable, and the deaths of these two young people should not have happened whilst they were in the care of the state.’
Solicitor General for Scotland, Ruth Charteris KC, said: ‘I would again wish to acknowledge the deep anguish that the deaths of Katie and William have brought to their families and appreciate that the wait for these proceedings has been too long.
‘Since their deaths, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has introduced reforms designed to reduce the time it takes to investigate deaths, improve the quality of such investigations, and improve communication with bereaved families.
‘As part of these reforms, a specialist custody deaths investigation team has been set up to focus on cases such as those of Katie and William.
‘There is much more that can be done across the whole of the justice system to improve how deaths in custody are investigated, and the Crown is committed to contributing to that.’
Mr Allan said he remembers the last time he saw his sister alive in Polmont with both him and his mother urging staff to keep her under careful watch as she was ‘very vulnerable’.
He added: ‘I knew that night something was going to happen.
‘She was either going to get beat up or she was going to have to be in an isolated cell.
‘But I didn’t even picture something worse happening.’
The Allan family are calling for a change in the law so the prison service would no longer be protected by Crown immunity and could face prosecution.
They also want to see reforms to the FAI process and legal aid.
Mr Allan said he hoped the changes will be introduced, lending ‘some meaning’ to his sister’s death and added: ‘This won’t happen to someone else, or at the very least it’ll happen to a lot less people as a result of the work we’ve done.’