Dani Garavelli writes about the systemic failures within the Scottish prison system through the stories of William Lindsay and Katie Allan, two young prisoners lost to suicide while incarcerated.
Everything the Allans uncovered about deaths in custody showed that these lives didn’t count: the length of time families had to wait before inquiries took place; the complacency of the SPS; the lack of any meaningful subsequent action. The main purpose of an FAI is to establish whether death could have been prevented and to identify measures that could prevent future deaths, yet in 90 per cent of the examined cases, the sheriff made no recommendations. And even if a sheriff does call for changes, the SPS is not legally obliged to carry them out.
Why are so many children and young people falling through the gaps? And why does the Scottish government keep talking up the benefits of a less punitive justice system while – along with England and Wales – jailing more people than any other country in Western Europe?