Deaths in Prison Custody in Scotland 2012-2022

6. Deaths in custody by gender

Reflecting the distribution of men and women in the wider prison population, the vast majority of deaths in custody were men. Of the 306 people who died between 2012-13 and 2021-22, 96% or 294 were men and 4% or 12 were women. The small number of women dying makes analysing deaths in custody by gender difficult. It is hoped that further analysis of broader qualitative information could help examine whether or not there are meaningful differences in the deaths of men and women.

Rate of death in custody by gender

Looking at the rate of death per 1,000 average daily population (Figure 6) and per 1,000 individuals experiencing imprisonment (Figure 7), the pattern observed for men largely mirrors the pattern observed when looking at the overall population. As men account for most of the deaths occuring this is an unsurprising finding. As to be expected in light of the very small number of deaths occuring amongst women, the rates observed for women fluctuate considerably.