Deaths in Custody

The LRB Podcast

London Review of Books

Society & Culture

4.4 • 581 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since 1995, at least 51 young people have died in Scottish prisons. These include Katie Allan and William Lindsay, who shared strong support networks and, despite very different life experiences, died in similar circumstances. Their deaths were deemed preventable in a long-awaited inquiry that identified a ‘catalogue’ of failures but led to no prosecutions. Dani Garavelli has been investigating William and Katie’s deaths since 2018. She joins Malin to discuss the high rate of suicide in custody and why Scotland’s supposedly enlightened approach to youth justice is deeply flawed. Find Dani Garavelli’s piece on the episode page: https://lrb.me/deathsincustodypod Sponsored links: Use the code ‘LRB’ to get £150 off Serious Readers lights here: https://www.seriousreaders.com/lrb See A Knock on the Roof at the Royal Court Theatre: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/a-knock-on-the-roof/ LRB Audio Discover audiobooks, Close Readings and more from the LRB: https://lrb.me/audiolrbpod Get in touch with the podcasts team: podcasts@lrb.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the LRB podcast is sponsored by Serious Readers, whose high-definition reading
0:05.4	lights allow you to read in comfort for longer during the dark evenings. Words really stand out
0:10.6	on the page with the high contrast that the HD light provides. Serious Reader's lights are hand
0:16.2	built in Britain and LRB podcast listeners can get £150 off any HD light with free delivery in the UK
0:23.0	by going to Seriousreaders.com slash LRB, and there's a 30-day risk-free trial. That web address again,
0:30.8	Seriousreaders.com slash LRB, or enter the code LRB at checkout to make reading enjoyable again
0:36.8	without straining your eyes.
0:52.7	You're listening to the LRB podcast. I'm Malin Hay.
0:56.8	In 2018, Katie Allen and William Lindsay died by suicide in Poulmont Young Offender
1:02.2	Institution in Scotland within six months of one another. Katie was 20, William was 16.
1:08.5	After six years of pressure and advocacy from their families, a judge ruled in
1:12.7	January this year that both their deaths were preventable. But Alan and Lindsay were just two of a
1:17.7	number of suicides at Poulmont in that time, and Poulmont is just part of the picture of a
1:22.6	disproportionate number of preventable deaths in the Scottish prison system at large. Katie Allen and William Lindsay's loved ones joined forces to seek justice for them,
1:31.5	and a conversation has now started about where the Scottish Prison Service has failed to
1:36.2	protect the young people in its custody.
1:38.6	Joining me today to talk about this is Danny Garravelli, a journalist for the Herald on Sunday,
1:43.3	among other papers, who has been reporting on the stories of Katie Allen and William Lindsay since 2018. So, Danny, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for asking me. I'm delighted. So let me start by just asking you a little bit about William Lindsay and Katie Allen. What were their respective backgrounds? How did they end up in prison and how did each of them
2:01.7	come to take their own life? Yeah, I mean, I suppose one of the most interesting things about this is that
2:06.1	they come from very different backgrounds. And I'll start with Katie. She was lovely, vibrant girls,
2:12.2	stable middle class home in the suburbs of Glasgow and she'd grown up with loving parents and a younger
2:17.9	brother Scott who idolised her. But she did suffer sometimes from anxiety. She was like a perfectionist
	...

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