Inside scandal-hit Polmont Young Offenders Institution

A scandal-hit younger offenders’ establishment the place a drink driving college scholar took her personal life had a ‘tradition of mistreatment’ that noticed inmates bullied and ‘compelled to parade bare’, it’s claimed. 

Katie Allan died inside months of arriving  at Polmont Young Offenders Institution, Stirlingshire in June 2018. A joint inquiry is investigating her loss of life and that of William Brown, 16, who was discovered useless in his cell in October 2018 hours after being taken of suicide watch. 

During her previous couple of months of her life, Ms Allan was ‘terrorised’ by inmates who bullied her for her stress-related hair loss earlier than she was introduced a banana quite than a bandana by a nurse to cowl her up, her mother and father say. 

They additionally declare she was repeatedly subjected to strip searches so employees might ‘attain their quotas’ and compelled by different inmates at hand over her possessions and perform menial duties for them. At one level an inmate allegedly stated ‘go and cling your self Katie and provides us all peace’. 

Four inmates at Polmont took their lives in simply 4 years, whereas a freedom of knowledge request in 2019 discovered it was receiving two complaints towards employees a month. Six have been in relation to bullying or assault, whereas staff have been additionally suspended for inappropriate behaviour and trafficking.   

Ms Allan was jailed for 16 months for working over 15-year-old Michael Keenan in August 2017. The Glasgow University scholar, who had drunk 4 pints, at all times insisted she didn’t realise she had hit anybody after her tyre blew and he or she hit an island earlier than driving off.

She had no earlier convictions and the household of the sufferer, who recovered from a damaged ankle and an injured eye socket, begged the decide to not ship her to a younger offenders’ establishment. 

But sentencing her in 2018, Sheriff David Pender informed her it ought to have been ‘very apparent’ she was not in a match state to drive and that the ‘mixture of the 2 fees’ – harmful driving and drink-driving – made it ‘not possible’ for him to not jail her. 

Ms Allan was discovered useless aged 21 on June 4, 2018, a day after her healthcare employee mom Linda warned a jail officer she was ‘terrified’ after being ‘berated’ by different prisoners. 

A toxicology report throughout a autopsy examination discovered 0.034mg per litre of mirtazapine – an antidepressant, which Ms Allan was not prescribed. She had misplaced 15lb after simply 4 months in custody.  

Linda and her husband, Stuart, compiled a file of failures they declare occurred earlier than their daughter’s loss of life. 

They say Ms Allen was plagued by different ladies, made to present away her belongings and bullied.

Her devastated mother and father consider extra ought to have been finished to assist when it grew to become apparent she was ­affected by ­stress-related alopecia and being bullied in consequence.

Describing one incident that they are saying proved the ‘blatant incompetence’ of Polmont’s nursing employees, Linda stated: ‘When Katie started to lose her hair I requested if Katie be allowed a head scarf or bandana to cowl the obvious areas of ­baldness.

‘This was refused by the reception employees at HMP & YOI ­Polmont. SPS employees contacted the well being centre earlier than the twenty seventh of April searching for recommendation on the right way to get Katie a head masking.

‘Katie reported {that a} jail officer known as the well being centre and spoke with a member of the nursing crew asking if Katie be allowed a head scarf or ­bandana.

‘The nurse acknowledged that they certainly had such gadgets and would deliver some to Katie’s corridor. A nurse went to Katie’s corridor with two bananas. As amusing as this story was on the time, it’s a tragic ­illustration of the blatant incompetence of the nursing employees.’

Polmont is the most important younger offenders’ establishment in Scotland and residential to Aaron Campbell, who was aged 16 when he kidnapped, raped and murdered six-year-old Scottish lady Alesha Sarah MacPhail in 2018. 

Speaking in 2019, the Allans stated they accepted their daughter wanted to be punished however have been horrified by the circumstances she needed to endure. 

Linda stated: ‘Katie had been bullied and berated and was in clear misery. She had misplaced her hair. On my final go to to see her along with her brother, we knew one thing was unsuitable. She appeared exhausted and hadn’t slept as a result of she was being terrorised and bullied.

‘We flagged this up with two of the jail officers and we now know that, simply earlier than she died, they’d informed her she is likely to be moved to the grownup jail. Katie would have been terrified.’

Linda Allan beforehand informed the Daily Record in Scotland her daughter informed her she was strip searched after virtually each go to her mother and father made to the jail.

Her mom stated she believed Katie’s compliant nature was making her daughter a straightforward goal for the wardens to ‘attain their strip-search quotas’. On one event she stated six guards searched her throughout a coaching train and talked about her as if she weren’t within the room.

A good friend informed The Sun: ‘She was positively getting bullied. That and the jail atmosphere instantly contributed to her ending her life. She ought to by no means have been in there.

‘One girl was making her give her tobacco, handing over her stamps and posting her letters for her. She had her scared s**tless.’

During Ms Allan’s put up mortem self-harm marks have been discovered on her physique. Her mother and father have questioned why she was not prevented from self-harming since she was seen bare usually throughout strip searches.

The deadly accident inquiry into Ms Allan and William Brown’s deaths at Polmont is now underway at Falkirk Sherriff Court. 

Mr Brown was remanded in custody after being deemed a ‘potential threat to public security’ at Glasgow Sheriff Court on October 4 2018, three days earlier than his loss of life, the inquiry heard.

On October 3, Mr Brown had walked right into a police station with a knife, whereas on bail 

for one more blade offence, the inquiry heard in an announcement of agreed proof. Despite a plea to bail him on account of an absence of beds in a safe unit, Mr Brown was remanded to Polmont, the place he died three days later.   

Before he was taken there, Mr Brown was requested by a social employee if he was suicidal, and replied: ‘No, not now, however I do not understand how I’ll be in jail.’

Since 2016, Mr Brown had been taken to hospital on account of suicide makes an attempt and ideation, extra drug use and preventing on 15 events in two years, and was initially placed on a 30-minute remark at Polmont when he arrived, ‘for reassurance and security’.

Since 2017, three different inmates have taken their lives in Polmont. They are Robert Wagstaff, Liam Kerr and Jack McKenzie. 

The most up-to-date inspection discovered Polmont had made ‘enhancements’ and ranked it ‘passable’ on seven of the 9 requirements inspected. The different two have been ranked ‘usually acceptable’. 

However, inspectors known as for extra ‘intelligence-led looking out’ as a substitute of physique looking out to keep away from re-traumatising feminine prisoners who might have been abused. 

For confidential assist name the Samaritans on 116123 or go to a neighborhood Samaritans department, see www.samaritans.org for particulars.