Families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay to meet prison service chiefs
The two died within months of each other in 2018 at Polmont.
The families of two young people who died in Polmont Young Offenders Institution are set to meet with senior prison service officials.
Katie Allan, 21, and William Lindsay, 16, died within months of each other in 2018 at Polmont, which is run by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS).
Ms Allan, a student at Glasgow University, was found dead on June 4 while serving a 16-month sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury.
William – also known as William Brown – who had made repeated attempts on his life in 2017 which were detailed in reports provided on his admission, was found dead in his cell on October 7, three days after he was remanded due to a lack of space in a children’s unit.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) was held last year at Falkirk Sheriff Court into their deaths and 25 recommendations were made by Sheriff Simon Collins.
Both the Scottish Government and SPS have already accepted in full the findings and recommendations of the inquiry.
Members of both families along with their lawyer Aamer Anwar are due to meet both the SPS chief executive and deputy chief executive in Glasgow on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
In a statement released ahead of the meeting, the families said they welcomed the fact the SPS had accepted all of Sheriff Collins’ recommendations.
However, they warned that deaths in custody in Scotland would continue unless the service was made more accountable.
“The catastrophic failures of the Scottish Prison Service effectively served a death sentence not just on Katie and William but on so many others,” the statement read.
“The lack of accountability across the SPS has led to Scotland having one of the highest avoidable mortality rates in prison custody, that will only continue if the UK Government does not take away crown immunity from our public prisons.”
The statement also called for an overhaul of SPS’ Talk to Me (TTM) policy, which is designed to prevent suicides.
“It is finally accepted that there is a need for a radical overhaul of the ‘tokenistic’ TTM policy”, the statement read.
“TTM was supposed to prevent suicides, but was most cruelly summed up by a five-minute tick box case conference into William Lindsay, held within two days of his arrival that failed to consider him a suicide risk.
“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.”
The meeting comes just days after the families met with Justice Secretary Angela Constance at Holyrood, ahead of her statement to the Scottish Parliament about the Government’s response to the FAI report.
Addressing Parliament on Thursday afternoon, Ms Constance offered her condolences to the families and pledged “lasting change” in response to the deaths.
“It is through ongoing and decisive action that we will create the lasting change they rightly demand and deserve,” she said.
She added that she had visited Polmont the previous week and substantial progress had already been made in improving safety at the facility.
Teresa Medhurst, SPS chief executive, previously said: “We are sincerely sorry and we apologise for the deaths of Katie and William and our failings.
“We recognise that their families want action, not words, and we are determined and committed to move at pace and that the actions we are setting out will be enduring and save many lives in the future.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with the families of Katie Allan and William Lindsay (Brown).
“The Justice Secretary met with the families last week to re-iterate this government’s commitment to ensuring ongoing and decisive action creates the lasting change they rightly demand and deserve.
“All of the Sheriff’s 25 recommendations have been accepted and the work on these is being delivered at pace with progress closely monitored.”
