Deaths in Scottish prisons among highest in Europe

Deaths in Scotland's prisons have increased by 60% in the past year, a report has revealed.

The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) found 64 people died in jail in 2024 - up from 40 in 2023.

Researchers said the mortality rate had more than doubled over the past decade and was now among the highest in Europe.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said every death in custody was "a tragedy for all those who knew and supported the individual".

According to the report 17 of the deaths last year were suicides or apparent suicides, 10 were related to drugs, 27 were attributed to "health condition or incident", one was a homicide and one was categorised as "other/accident".

The remaining eight were undetermined or remain under investigation, it said.

The Glasgow University team behind the report said the overall level of deaths in custody last year was the highest since modern records began, in 1995, and almost certainly the highest ever.

"That rise is absolutely stunning. It's unprecedented," said Professor Sarah Armstrong who led the research.

The report also said prison deaths from suicide had been rising since 2016 and may have reached a record high last year.

Prof Armstrong said she was encouraged by the SPS reaction to a report into the deaths of Katie Allan, 21, and William Brown, 16, who took their own lives in Polmont Young Offenders Institution in 2018.

But she said there were issues with "organisational culture" in Scottish prisons and that there needed to be a move away from treating the level of deaths as normal.

Katie Allan's mother, Linda, is named as a co-author of the report.

She said in a statement: "We need independent, timely investigations for every death that occurs while someone is in the care of the state."

The report said poor air quality, access to healthcare, extended periods locked in cells and increased isolation could "lead to a loss of hope."

Prof Armstrong said the team identified a recurring pattern in prison deaths with officers not adequately completing cell checks, health concerns being treated as "drug seeking behaviour" and signs of declining mental health "not being acted upon".

She added: "When we looked at international comparators our death rates are more like Azerbaijan and Moldova, where torture and corruption have been documented."

Prof Armstrong said it was "anomalous that we have one single state organisation that is immune from prosecution".

It comes after SPS head Teresa Medhurst said the prison service should face the possibility of criminal prosecution over deaths in custody - already the case for private prisons.

The SPS said it was ultimately for a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) to determine each cause of death, but added it published details of all deaths in custody which indicated there were 14 suicides in 2024, "the same level as in 2019 and 2022."

A spokesperson said: "We are determined to deliver systemic change, at pace, to how we support people in our care, in a way which will be enduring, transparent, and impactful."

An FAI is a legal requirement for any death in a Scottish prison.

The researchers said as well as deaths by suicide there were "numerous deaths from acute health events or from conditions which are normally manageable in the community".

They argued that pandemic restrictions "have a sustained legacy in Scottish prisons," with many inmates still locked in cells from late afternoon until the following morning.

"Such restrictions have been associated with intensifying isolation and deteriorating mental health," the researchers conclude.

"In that category of so-called natural causes deaths are 30 and 40-year-olds who are dying from things like heart attacks or from diabetes or epilepsy," said Prof Armstrong.

"Technology and new buildings are not going to fix this - it's the human element, it's the organisational culture, it's the relationships between people in prisons."

According to the report, there was one death of a trans woman in 2024 and the remaining 63 deaths were men.

It calculates that in 2022 – the most recent year for which comparable data are available – there was a rate of 592.8 prison deaths per 100,000 in Scotland compared to 368 per 100,000 in England and Wales.

The sharp increase in Scotland could not be explained by a rise in the prison population, said the researchers.

They pointed out that deaths had risen from 24 to 64 between 2014 and 2024 – a jump of 167% – while the number of prisoners had risen by around 4.5% in the same period.

"Nor can the increase be attributed entirely to the ageing of the prison population," the report adds.

Prof Armstrong noted that the prison population was also ageing in England and in the US, and yet neither country had seen a similar rise in deaths.

The report also examined deaths in other forms of "state custody" such as mental health facilities, detention centres for migrants and asylum accommodation, and among people with learning disabilities and autism.

It concludes that the "quality of information" about such deaths "continues to suffer from gaps, inconsistencies and errors," and calls for improvements.

The Scottish government said every death in custody was tragic and said it would "carefully consider the findings of this sobering annual report".

A spokesperson said: "The health and wellbeing of all those in custody is a priority for this government and we continue to work with partners to ensure their safety.

"All of Sheriff Collins's recommendations in his determination of the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the deaths at Polmont YOI of Katie and William have been accepted and the work on these is being delivered at pace with progress closely monitored."