Brother’s fury over Katie Allen’s death in young offenders’ unit

The brother of a young woman who took her own life while in prison says the justice system killed her.

Katie Allen when she was 21 years old. Found dead in her cell at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution. In June 2018, three months into a 16-month sentence for drink-driving.

Her brother Scott, who is now the same age as his sister when she died, told BBC Scotland that she was vulnerable, abandoned and “devastated” by a system that The goal was to keep it safe.

His case is one of three deaths in custody at Polmont being investigated by a fatal accident inquiry.

Katie’s death and commitment to a joint inquiry 16-year-old William Brown To be published on Friday, the results of an inquest into the 2021 suicide of 20-year-old Jack McKenzie will be released at a later date.

The FAI heard in Katie’s death that she was frail and had a history of self-harm which staff at Polmont Prison were not aware of.

He also heard that she was struggling in prison and was being taunted and threatened by other inmates before her death.

Her mother Linda told the inquest at Falkirk Sheriff Court that her daughter had been left traumatized by the abuse.

He said someone had shouted at him to “go and hang Katie and give us all a break”.

Her brother Scott was 15 at the time, but says even as a teenager he could see the flaws in the prison system that made his sister “too scared to live.” was

Scott said the prison environment was slowly killing Katie and the authorities “abandoned” her to live with her.

“They brutally killed him,” she told BBC Scotland News.

“They tortured him, defiled him, they destroyed someone and then, when all was said and done, let him die.

“They didn’t just kill him, they destroyed him.”

Allen’s family have always maintained that Katie confessed to her crime and accepted that she should be punished.

She apologized and during her sentencing the court heard that the family of the 15-year-old boy she injured when she hit her car did not want Katie to go to prison.

He was still given a custodial sentence.

“He made a mistake and he paid for it with his life,” Scott said.

The FAI heard that Katie is struggling in prison.

Her assigned prison officer told the inquest that she was “not made for prison”.

Her mother said Katie faced ridicule for the hair loss she was experiencing from alopecia and her mental health “deteriorated significantly” while she was in custody.

She said her daughter was “incredibly upset”.

Scott remembers the last time he saw his sister in Polmont.

“My mother and I both said to a prison officer, he needs to be watched tonight, he is very weak.

“I knew something was going to happen that night.

“He will either be beaten or he will have to stay in an isolated cell.

“But I didn’t imagine it getting any worse.”

He said that at age 15, he didn’t understand the legal term and why his sister was in prison, but he understood what he saw happening to her there.

“I was slowly watching someone I treasure lose themselves, slowly become less of themselves,” he said.

“Through the visit he would become a little less comfortable, he would become a little less adjusted, he would be more exposed to the environment that was slowly killing him.

“Even if she had lived and gotten out of prison, she wouldn’t have been the same person.”

On June 3, the day after that last visit, Scott was called out of his classroom at school. He remembers it clearly.

“It was during my lunch break,” Scott said.

“I got a call from my mom and she was like, can you please come to Main Butt?

“I said OK, ‘What’s going on?'”

In the school car park, Scott sat in the car while his mother explained what had happened.

Scott said he was “instantly broken”.

“I’ve lost the most important person in my life.”

Scott had a hard time coming to terms with losing his sister.

“I was angry the whole time,” he said.

“I was a kid, and I could see the flaws in the prison system.

“How can a child not understand flaws when they can see them?

“Lack of empathy. And that was more and more evident, not only from my sister, but the stories she told me about other prisoners at Polmont.

“They’re pretty much given up on getting on with it.”

Scott describes his loss as losing multiple loved ones.

“Katie was about three people,” he said.

“She was my best friend, my big sister and almost like another mother to me.

“She was very close to me. I was very close to her. I could always be very honest with her.

“He always helped me come out of my shell.”

Nearly seven years later, Scott feels his life is only moving forward after his teenage years were plagued with grief.

He said he went to university in Edinburgh to “get away from it all” and make a fresh start but grief got in the way of making new friends and meeting people.

He saw alcohol as an enemy for a long time as a result of its role in his sister’s punishment.

He was also “locked in deep grief” and found it impossible to talk about psychological or philosophical concepts in his degree course because they all evoked memories.

After years of crippling grief and panic attacks, he says he’s had to “learn how to be human again” but now believes he’s starting to look to the future.

The aim of a fatal accident inquiry is to establish what happened and to prevent future deaths from occurring in similar circumstances.

Allen’s family are also calling for changes to the law to deal with Crown immunity – which protects the prison service from prosecution – as well as reforms to the FAI process and improvements to legal aid.

Scott hopes that Katie’s legacy will eventually change – that her death will give some meaning.

“It’s not going to happen to anyone else, or at least it’s going to happen to very few people that we’ve done,” he said.

But he still misses her every day.

“I have so many memories of Katie. I deeply, deeply wish I could make more, but I know I can’t.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “Our thoughts are with the families of Katie Allen and William Lindsay.

“As we now await the publication of the Fatal Accident Inquiry’s determination, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”