PRISON DEATHS: 244 people died while detained in custody

By Bill Heaney

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP, right, has today urged ministers to take action to cut deaths in custody after a new report found almost 250 deaths in just a single year.

The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice published a new report today, Nothing to See Here? Deaths in Custody and FAIs in Scotland-2023, which found that between October 2022 and September 2023, 244 people died while detained in custody or under the control of the state in Scotland. This represents an average of four deaths every week.

The report also contained findings about Scotland’s Fatal Accident Inquiry system, which is tasked with examining deaths in custody. It noted that as of September 2023, there have been no completed FAIs for anyone who has died of Covid in prison, nearly four years after the first such death occurred.

The report arrived as the head of the Scottish Prison Service Teresa Medhurst told the BBC’s Disclosure programme that prisons have now reached a “tipping point” and that the system “cannot take anymore.” She warned that pressures could result in the use of emergency powers to release inmates early.

Mr McArthur said: “Today’s findings make for disturbing reading. This is a startling number of deaths in mental health facilities and prisons. It’s clear that there are lessons to be learned across the custodial network.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to make our prisons humane and productive places by creating a properly funded justice system.

“That means giving hard-pressed prison staff the resources they need, including a roll out mental health professionals across the estate. It also means ensuring that when deaths tragically occur, there is a swift and robust system in place to ensure they are properly investigated.

“On the SNP’s watch, overcrowding in Scotland’s prisons is at record levels and long-promised mental health support has gone largely undelivered. These failures have led to greater levels of violence, increased incidents of self-harm and a rising volatility that puts immense pressure on every aspect of the system.”

The Scottish Government’s justice secretary Angela Constance was forced to deny claims that her administration were planning to release hundreds of criminals from jail early at the moment to deal with overcrowding in the system.

In the Dispatches show, Scottish Prison Service chief Teresa Medhurst claimed that prisons were becoming “unsafe” due to the sheer number of people incarcerated, and the out-of-date cells where they are forced to stay. She said that emergency powers may be needed to solve this issue.

During the Covid pandemic, the Scottish Government used emergency legislation to release 348 prisoners early, with Scottish Tory justice spokesman Russell Findlay claiming that almost half of them committed crimes after they were let free. He warned that Scots would not welcome this happening again.

At the time of the BBC Scotland documentary, 8,000 people were housed in Scotland’s jails, with the population set to increase to 8,700 this year. If it hits 8,500 the SNP Executive will need to step in with measures to reduce this number due to safety fears.

Mr Findlay, pictured left, asked the government about this issue at Holyrood, as he called on them to be open with the public about how they will deal with overcrowding. He said: “The prison service is warning that emergency powers might be needed to release prisoners, possibly in the hundreds, back into Scotland’s communities, before they served their sentences and with no restrictions whatsoever.

“This would put the public at risk, this would betray crime victims. The SNP justice secretary told the BBC that doing nothing is not an option. But was has this government been doing? Let’s take a look.

“Failing to build two new prisons hundreds of pounds over budget and years late, spending millions on prisoners mobiles which are then used to commit serious crimes, preaching about rehabilitation, while freeing highly dangerous men without any treatment whatsoever.

“Talking about tackling drugs, but there are more drugs in prisons than there are on our streets. And let’s not forget last time they released hundreds of prisoners due to Covid, almost half of them reoffended within a year. So we need to be honest with people, if that’s the plan.

“Do prison officers and the public not deserve the truth?” He asked Ms Constance if she could “rule out any such mass release” of prisoners early.

The SNP minister responded to say that she has “no plans for the emergency release” of prisoners due to prison projections not being as bad as first feared. In October, there were about 7,950 prisoners, but today this has dropped down to 7,829, so there is no need for cons to be released early.

She added: “A high prison population is not in the interest of prisoners, it is not in the interest of staff working in the prison service and it is not in the interest of community safety. At the end of the day, we all want fewer crimes, fewer victim and less harm in the community. That’s why we need to shift the balance from an overuse of custody to increasing the use of evidence-based community justice measures.”

“When they freed prisoners early during lockdown, almost half reoffended within 12 months and that is exactly what would happen again.”