Record numbers are dying in Scottish prisons, reveals new study
Published: 29 April 2025
A major new study has found the number of people dying in prison surged to a record number of 64 in 2024, making Scotland’s mortality rate among the highest in Europe.
A major new research study has found the number of people dying in prison surged to a record number of 64 in 2024, a 60% increase on the previous year, making Scotland’s mortality rate among the highest in Europe.
‘Nothing to See Here? Deaths in Custody and their Investigation in Scotland in 2024’, published by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, looked into the number of people who had died while in prison, in police custody, a mental health facility, immigration detention centre and in care settings for looked after children and young people.
In total 244 people have died in Scotland while detained in custody or under the control of the state in 2024, equivalent to more than four deaths per week.
Most of these deaths (138) occurred among those detained on mental health grounds, 19 were after police contact and a further three in police custody. Sixteen children and young people died in care, three people died while detained in immigration centres, and one inpatient with learning disabilities died while living in hospital.
The research team, led by Professor Sarah Armstrong at the University of Glasgow, made a series of worrying findings; the sharp rise in prison deaths being the most striking.
Professor Armstrong said: “Last year we reported there were 40 deaths in prisons in 2023 which has now surged to 64 in 2024. It is of real concern that the mortality rate in our prisons has more than doubled in the last decade and is now among the highest in Europe. When we looked at international comparators our death rates are more like Azerbaijan and Moldova, where torture and corruption have been documented, than England and Wales.”
The cause for the majority of deaths in prison was due to a health condition, by suicide or was drug related.
Professor Armstrong said: “The reasons behind the recent increase could both be due to the challenging physical environment of prison and the regimes inside it. Poor air quality, access to healthcare, extended periods of time being locked in cells and increased isolation from others, can all cause poor health, exacerbate existing conditions, and lead to a loss of hope.
“We also identified a recurring pattern in prison deaths with officers not completing cell checks adequately, health concerns of prisoners being treated by staff as drug seeking behaviour and signs of poor or declining mental health not being acted upon.
“Despite the Scottish Prison Service’s commitment to learn from each death in custody, it is worrying to see deaths occurring in similar circumstances year after year.”
A Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) is mandatory after someone dies in prison or in police custody, however the majority of the 244 deaths will not be subject to such an inquiry which means very little is known publicly about who these people are and why they died. The Procurator Fiscal may order a discretionary FAI where a death has been sudden or unexplained, or where families have called for one.
For example, in a year where 138 people died in mental health detention, there were just two discretionary FAIs published on mental health grounds. There were no FAI’s carried out into the deaths of looked after children and young people.
While an FAI does not hold anyone accountable for a death, even where one is ruled to have been preventable, a Sheriff may make ‘findings’ that identify problems or preventive factors. In around 90% of FAIs published in 2024 the Sheriff did not make any findings or recommendations. The study suggests it takes an average of 3.5 years from the date a person dies until the FAI determination is published, the longest – a death in police custody – took ten years.
Even when internal reviews were carried out by NHS Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service, the National Hub or the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (PIRC) researchers reported a wide variance in how involved families were and how transparent each organisation was in sharing their findings.
Co-author of the report, Linda Allan, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Glasgow, said she found the lack of transparency, access to data and accountability from those institutions that were meant be looking after people, unacceptable.
“More than four people including children and young people die every week in this country while they are under the care of the state and it is unacceptable that in many cases we will never know what their names were, how they lived their lives, what led to their death and what these organisations are doing to stop it from happening again.
“We need independent, timely investigations for every death that occurs while someone is in the care of the state. We need to see robust data gathered, for internal reviews to be made public to ensure transparency, and for families to be included at every stage of the process. A Scotland where these things don’t happen is a Scotland that doesn’t care.”
The researchers found that numbers often didn’t match for agencies reporting deaths of the same population.
Professor Armstrong stated: ‘We can’t even be sure the government knows who or how many are dying in their care.
She added: “With this now being our fourth annual report, it seems we are further away than ever before from being the compassionate, progressive jurisdiction that the Scottish Government claims us to be.”
First published: 29 April 2025