The parents of a student who killed herself in jail have accused the Scottish Prison Service of presiding over “nothing short of a massacre” by neglecting those in its care.
Linda and Stuart Allan, whose daughter Katie took her own life in 2018, said the lack of support for vulnerable inmates was tantamount to Scotland still having a death penalty.
Speaking to the media at Holyrood a year after their late daughter was jailed, the couple presented their own research into the 258 deaths in custody which have taken place in Scotland since 2008.
They said it showed a recent increase in suicides, and severely criticised the slow pace of the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) system which is supposed to investigate prison deaths.
They said: “Our campaign attempts to present to Government ministers, academics and society the stark reality of what is going on in the halls of our prisons.
“No gloss over, no excuses, no spin or sound bites and ask for honesty.
“What we have uncovered is that Scotland has the death penalty - it is no longer a jostling public spectacle around the gallows.
“It is a hidden, invisible genocide behind the doors of the cells in our prison estate.”
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Katie Allan, 21, was jailed for 16 months in March 2018 for a hit-and-run while drunk the previous year in which a 15-year-old boy was knocked down in Giffnock, Renfrewshire.
The Glasgow University geography student killed herself at HMYOI Polmont that June.
Her parents have blamed bullying by other prisoners, “humiliating” strip searches, and staff failing to heed warnings that Ms Allan has a history of self-harm.
Mrs Allan, an honorary clinical professor at Glasgow University, and her family researched the 258 deaths in custody over the last decade, calling the statistics “horrific”.
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In an 18-page report, they said they had established cause of death in 208 causes through publicly available death certificates, while the Prison Service only said it existed for 191,
The research also found 67 families were still waiting on FAIs to conclude, with some prisoner deaths dating to 2014.
Of the 67, they had been able to establish that at least 18 had taken their own life.
They said that over the last decade, 40 per cent of all prisoner deaths were suicides, but in the last three years, this had risen about 50%.
They also found almost half of families waited two years for an FAI verdict, and less than a third had legal representation.
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Mr Allan, a data inputter at a telecommunications company, described the figures as "nothing short of a massacre".
He said: "In 2008, 35% of prisoner deaths were from suicides but in 2016, 2017 and 2018 this has rocketed to over 50%, with the volume of prison deaths increasing in that time."
Aamer Anwar, the family's lawyer, said the Allans had lost faith in a Scottish Prison Service which appeared “more interested in spin and cover-ups".
He said: “They believe an FAI system - held on average now two years after a suicide - is not fit for purpose, it is set up to fail families and hide what is truly happening. The SPS treats prison suicides as hidden dirty secrets, but there is nothing inevitable about suicides.
"Over half of those imprisoned today in Scotland's prisons have definable mental health problems and prison is not fit for purpose for dealing with them. Katie Allan and many others were failed by a system which keeps repeating the same mistakes."
Mr Aamer also represents the mother of William Lindsay, who died aged 16 at Polmont in October a few days after being remanded, despite being flagged as a suicide risk.
After listening to Mr and Mrs Allan, Labour MSP Pauline McNeil said: "The Scottish Government needs to take urgent action around young offenders and mental health in prisons. And to hear that 67 grieving families still don't know how their loved one died - what sort of country are we living in? It can't continue like this."
LibDem MSP Liam McArthur called for an independent review into the "bureaucratic and broken" FAI system.
He said: "No more families should have to face agonising waits of up to a decade for answers about their loved ones' deaths or be asked to make a financial contribution towards this process. Families can't have closure and the justice system can't learn lessons, putting more lives in danger."
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said its thoughts were with the friends and family of Miss Allan. He said it is awaiting the FAI into her death and a report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons with any recommendations for changes to be made.
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