Deaths in Scottish prisons have reached record levels in the last three years and only a fraction of the number were as a result of COVID-19, say researchers from the University of Glasgow.
While 15 of the deaths were related to COVID-19, 29 were suspected or confirmed suicides, 25 were linked to drugs, and 42 were attributed to medical conditions.
Two of those who died had been murdered and eight of the deaths are as yet unclassified.
The researchers said the figures were much higher than the rate of deaths in prisons in England.
The report also discovered that there had been a 42 percent increase in people taking their own lives since the prison service’s suicide prevention strategy, Talk To Me, was introduced six years ago.
Armstrong said COVID-19 restrictions in prisons had caused “significant mental distress” as inmates became more isolated from families and support networks.
She said, “What’s more disturbing is that the numbers seem to be on the rise and that there seems to be no kind of interruption despite [Scottish] government promises to address this and it being established as a priority for targeting.”
Armstrong said, “Suicide and drug deaths seem to be leading, or motivating and fuelling this rise.”
The researchers found a person sent to jail in 2022 was twice as likely to die in prison as someone in 2008.
3 Deaths in 5 Weeks in HMP Shotts
Although the report does not give details of the deaths it is known that Shotts prison in North Lanarkshire suffered three prisoner deaths in the space of five weeks in the summer of 2021.Andrew McKinlay—who murdered his girlfriend in 2013—died in August 2021, shortly after the deaths of James Garscadden, 32, and Marius Bauba, 28.
In July 2022 James O'Rourke, 52, was jailed for life and told he would not be released for at least 23 years for Ramsey’s murder.
The court heard O'Rourke, who had been convicted of a gangland murder in 1992, had held two prison officers captive during a siege in 1997 and also attacked a prison director with an improvised blade in 2004.
In Scotland sudden and violent deaths are the subject of fatal accident inquiries (FAI), overseen by a sheriff, rather than inquests as in England and Wales.
A year ago the University of Glasgow researchers produced another report which examined around 200 FAIs involving prison deaths in a 15-year period.
In 90 percent of those cases, sheriffs ruled nothing could have been done to prevent or foresee the prisoner’s death.
In their updated report, published in October 2022, they found 123 FAIs for prison deaths had not been completed and found engagement with families was low.
Armstrong said: “Time after time we’re finding that the FAIs are saying that there’s nothing to be done, that people did their best and the person died anyway … but, it does make you wonder, if everyone’s doing their best every time, then at some level there might be something wrong with the system.”
Linda Allan—whose daughter Katie, 21, took her own life in Polmont prison, near Falkirk, in 2018—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,” she said.
A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) spokesman said: “COPFS takes very seriously its contribution to Scotland’s response to deaths in custody. We have created a specialist investigations team to focus on these cases and are part of a multi-agency action group which is driving improvement.”
He added, “We feel this research paper does not fully capture the practical application of FAI legislation and would be pleased to meet with its authors.”
