Suicide attempts at Glasgow women's prison have doubled

Lachlan Mackinnon , http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk

SUICIDE attempts at Scotland's only women's prison have more than doubled.

The number of desperate inmates at Cornton Vale, near Stirling, who have tried to take their own lives has rocketed from 15 to 31 in three years.

And the number of women self-harming soared by 78 per cent from 50 to 89 over the same period.

One inmate took her own life between April 2005 and March 2006.

Cornton Vale houses 388 prisoners - including 39 aged between 16 and 21.

It is estimated about 80 per cent of inmates are mentally ill, half addicted to drugs and four out of five have suffered abuse.

The prison first came under the spotlight when eight inmates committed suicide between 1995 and 1998.

A report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons at the time found conditions at the jail "wholly inadequate and inappropriate".

In 1995, Kelly Holland, 17, took her life hours after being sent to the remand block.

Days later, her friend, drug addict Arlene Elliot, 17, committed suicide.

Heroin addict Joanne O'Reilly, 26, became the third suicide in December that year and was followed four months later by remand prisoner Angela Bollan, 19.

Denise Devine, 26, added to the death toll in September 1996 and convicted prisoner Yvonne Gilmour, 22, killed herself on Christmas Eve.

Sandra Brown, 27, became the seventh victim a year later before Mary Cowan, 28, took her own life in July 1998.

When former chief prisons inspector Clive Fairweather left the post in 2002, he warned the problems at Cornton Vale were a "recipe for disaster".

In the last 10 years, the number of women in jail in Scotland rose by 90 per cent.

Ten years ago, then home affairs minister Henry McLeish pledged to reduce the number of inmates at Cornton Vale by half. Instead, the figure has doubled.