NICOLA Sturgeon has offered her “sincere condolences” to the families of two young people who committed suicide while in Polmont Young Offenders' Institution.
Student Katie Allan, 21, killed herself in June, while vulnerable 16-year-old William Lindsay was found dead within 48 hours of being remanded at the facility last month.
Ms Allan’s devastated parents are now campaigning for an independent review of deaths in custody in Scottish jails, and met with Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf earlier this week.
The First Minister said mandatory fatal accident inquiries (FAIs) would be carried out following the tragedies, but added: “We will not wait for those before we take action that we consider to be necessary in order to ensure that issues are properly addressed.”
Ms Allan, a geography student at Glasgow University, was jailed for 16 months after hitting and injuring a teenage boy while over the legal drink-drive limit.
Her parents say staff at Polmont failed to heed warnings over her vulnerability and history of self-harm.
William Lindsay, who had spent his life in and out of care, died at Polmont in October despite being flagged up as a suicide risk.
Ms Sturgeon was asked about the deaths by Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill during First Minister’s Questions.
Ms McNeill called for an “urgent review” of the availability of secure accommodation, which social workers had argued would be more appropriate for Mr Lindsay.
She said figures for 2016-17 showed an 11 per cent fall in the number of secure places, as well as the complete closure of one unit.
Ms Sturgeon said: “This is a serious issue that has to be looked at seriously. The Cabinet discussed the issue on Tuesday in the context of the tragic case that Pauline McNeill has raised.
“I record my sincere condolences to the family of William Lindsay, who was also known as William Brown. I also take the opportunity to offer my condolences to the family of Katie Allan, who also died in Polmont recently.
“Earlier this week, Humza Yousaf met her family; I am grateful to them for taking the time to attend the meeting and for allowing us to hear their views about their dreadful experience. None of us can imagine the distress that both those families are going through.
“We are determined that any lessons that need to be learned will be learned. All appropriate agencies must look closely at what happened.
“There will be mandatory fatal accident inquiries in both cases. While processes are on-going, it is not appropriate for me to get into the details of the individual cases, but in William Lindsay’s case in particular, there are a number of things that I, as First Minister, want to address and ensure that we look at properly.
“Those matters include experiences of the care system; we have the independent review of the care system under way.
“Secure care provision is certainly among the issues, as are consideration of how we can do even more to keep young people out of the criminal justice system altogether, and mental health support in Polmont. Those are all issues that the Scottish Government is considering.
“As I have said, there will be mandatory FAIs in both cases—rightly so—but we will not wait for those before we take action that we consider to be necessary in order to ensure that issues are properly addressed.”
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