he mom of a girl who took her personal life at Polmont younger offenders’ establishment says suicidal prisoners are positioned in “torture cells” relatively than being given therapeutic care.
Professor Linda Allan, whose 21-year-old daughter Katie died in 2018, gave a prolonged assertion to the Scottish Youngster Abuse Inquiry because it investigates abuse in younger offenders’ establishments.
Whereas Katie didn’t die in one in every of these “secure cells”, Prof Allan stated prisoners are reluctant to confess psychological well being difficulties as a result of situations they are going to be positioned in in consequence.
Her assertion described how Katie suffered bullying at Polmont and the way she had tried to assist her daughter within the weeks earlier than her dying.
Prof Allan has been conducting analysis into jail deaths in addition to campaigning for reform.
She advised Girl Smith’s inquiry there was an “astounding” improve in suicides in custody regardless of a brand new technique to cut back them being launched in 2016.
The marketing consultant nurse, who has an honorary professorship at Glasgow College, didn’t seem in individual on the inquiry in Edinburgh however her assertion was learn out by a member of the inquiry group.
Prof Allan stated Katie had been a part of a “regular household” in East Renfrewshire and had been finding out geography at Glasgow College.
In 2018, she was convicted of harmful driving and driving drunk after an incident the place a 15-year-old boy was knocked down.
She was a first-time offender and her household didn’t anticipate her to obtain a custodial sentence.
Prof Allan stated: “When she was sentenced, she turned to me and mouthed ‘assist me mum’.
“It was horrendous.”
She stated Katie first skilled bullying from one other lady at Polmont who demanded espresso and cigarettes from her.
When this lady was moved elsewhere, different younger offenders turned on Katie as the girl had been supplying medication to them, Prof Allan stated.
She stated her daughter was “petrified” of many of the jail officers and didn’t wish to open up to them.
Jail actions eroded her sense of self worth, with Prof Allan saying: “Katie studied geography … she was given a map of the world and advised to color it in.”
She stated those that are “jail clever” in custody is not going to inform jail workers if they’ve suicidal ideas because the “secure cells” for suicide commentary are so sparse, with prisoners having their garments and private gadgets eliminated.
She stated: “If somebody is suicidal, what they want is a therapeutic setting. As an alternative what occurs is they’re put right into a torture cell.”
Her assertion additionally described Katie’s feeling of “degradation” throughout strip searches following household visits.
Her household have campaigned for higher entry to telephones in jail, with Prof Allan saying: “We predict if Katie had had entry to a telephone then she would nonetheless be alive.”
On the final day Prof Allan noticed her daughter, Katie had not slept in three days and was upset within the customer space.
She stated that each one by way of the evening different prisoners had been shouting insults at her, with some saying she “would possibly as properly prime herself”.
Prof Allan advised a jail officer about this and later Katie discovered that she could be moved in with grownup feminine prisoners “upstairs” at Polmont.
She was discovered useless in her cell the following day.
Prof Allan stated that since Katie’s dying her household have been on a “five-year journey of paperwork and additional trauma”.
She stated: “5 years on and nonetheless no accountability for Katie’s dying.”
I am stunned that they’re nonetheless utilizing isolation cells
After researching deaths in custody, she stated it’s “astounding” that suicides in Scottish prisons have elevated by 40% since a prevention technique known as Discuss To Me was launched.
Earlier on Friday, the Scottish Youngster Abuse Inquiry heard proof from Dr Derek Chiswick, a psychiatrist who carried out a overview following a sequence of suicides at Glenochil younger offenders’ advanced within the Nineteen Eighties.
His overview discovered sure measures on the detention centre had been “inhumane and unacceptable”.
Younger prisoners on suicide commentary had been stored strictly remoted in naked cells with nearly no contact.
Inquiry counsel James Peoples KC learn him a preview of Prof Allan’s proof, which he stated was “very transferring and the occasions she described are completely tragic”.
He stated the secure cells Prof Allan described bore similarities to these he encountered a Glenochil within the Nineteen Eighties.
Dr Chiswick added: “I’m stunned that they’re nonetheless utilizing isolation cells like that for individuals who may need psychological signs.”
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