Constance pledges ‘systemic response’ over deaths at Polmont YOI
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The families of two people who took their own lives while in a young offenders institution now have a “chance of hope and a legacy”, their lawyer said after Scotland’s Justice Secretary accepted there had been “systemic failures contributing to their deaths”.
In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Angela Constance said the deaths of Katie Allan and William Brown, who was also known as William Lindsay, “should not have happened while they were in the care of the state”. The pair took their own lives within months of each other while in Polmont YOI in 2018.
Ms Allan, 21, who had been a student at Glasgow University, had been serving a sentence for drink-driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving, while 16-year-old Mr Brown – who had made repeated attempts on his life in 2017 – had been remanded to Polmont due to a lack space in a children’s secure unit.
After a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) held last year into their deaths, Sheriff Simon Collins KC last week ruled there had been a “catalogue of individual and collective failures by prison and healthcare staff”, and said their deaths “might have been avoided”.
In the wake of the sheriff’s report, Ms Constance told Holyrood on Thursday: “Those systemic failures require a systemic response. “I hear and I fully understand the families’ demand for action and agree we must and we will take action.”. Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the families of Ms Allan and Mr Brown, welcomed the minister’s statement, adding: “It is time that the SPS realised there is nothing inevitable about suicides.”.
