Professor Sarah Armstrong

An annual report from the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) examined the 244 people – equivalent to four a week – who died in Scotland while detained in custody or under the control of the state in 2024.

Most of these deaths (138) occurred among those detained on mental health grounds, while 19 were after police contact and a further three in police custody.

The total includes 16 children and young people who died in care, three people who died while detained in immigration centres, and one inpatient with learning disabilities who died while living in hospital.

The research team, led by Professor Sarah Armstrong at the University of Glasgow, made a series of worrying findings, in particular the sharp rise in prison deaths.  

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 added: “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.”

The majority of the 244 deaths will not be subject to a fatal accident inquiry (FAI), the researchers noted.

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 FAIs carried out into the deaths of looked-after children and young people.

Linda Allan, honorary clinical associate professor at the University of Glasgow and co-author of the new report, said: “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 say that numbers they found often didn’t match up with agencies reporting deaths of the same population.  

“We can’t even be sure the government knows who or how many are dying in their care,” Professor Armstrong said.

“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.”