Young offenders should be given access to cordless phones in their cells to ease mental health problems, Scotland’s chief inspector of prisons claimed.
Wendy Sinclair-Gieben’s suggestion follows a review of services prompted by the suicides of two young people at Polmont young offenders institution.
Katie Allan, 21, was in Polmont when she died last June. Four months later, William Lindsay, 16, killed himself within 48 hours of being sent there on remand.
Sinclair-Gieben said cordless phones could be installed in cells, which could be used with a pin code to call pre-agreed numbers.
She told Holyrood’s justice committee: “If you are distressed at night, you can ring a bell and somebody will come and give you a phone to call Samaritans. That requires a level of self-help seeking behaviour.
“Whereas, if you can just phone a helpline or phone your family from your room without having to stigmatise yourself, that would be a huge benefit.”
Katie’s parents Stuart and Linda met Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf for talks in November and urged him to halt the “spiralling epidemic” of suicides in Scotland’s prisons.
Their daughter had been detained for 16 months after admitting injuring a teenage pedestrian while drink-driving. She quickly started to self-harm and stress made her hair fall out.
The phone recommendation came as MSPs heard the Scottish Prison Service faces “significant” pressures on budgets, staffing and a rising population.
Sinclair-Gieben said: “We’ve basically got approximately 700 extra people in prison at any given time – that’s the equivalent of a large size prison. That’s no joke, to actually place that pressure on.
“I know the Scottish Prison Service has no additional budget to manage those extra 700 people, which is a problem.
“I don’t think we necessarily have the space. They are having to put two people into a room primarily designed for one. I think the human rights people are going to be exercised about that.
The chief inspector also raised concern about an ageing staff population, with many expected to leave within the next year and a half.
She said: “The bit that does worry me is that level of corporate knowledge and experience. You know, these are well experienced staff that we’re going to be losing, a bulk of them at the same time and that does worry me.”
