Detectors that can tell whether a person in a cell is still alive are now in use at HMP YOI Polmont in Scotland.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has installed the ‘signs of life’ devices in “a handful of cells” at the establishment. They look similar to smoke detectors.
A report published last year recommended the technology. It examined the deaths of two young people at Polmont in 2018, both of whom took their own lives.
‘Very unobtrusive’
Professor Nancy Loucks, chief executive of the charity Families Outside, has visited Polmont and seen the devices in place. She welcomed the technology when she spoke at the Futurescot digital justice and policing conference in Glasgow.
She said: “It’s very unobtrusive. It looks sort of like a smoke detector installed in the ceiling.” She added that it might help with natural cause deaths, where people are unwell, as well as with suicide prevention.
Professor Loucks told 1919 Magazine, which reported her conference remarks, that she believed the detectors would help. She said prison staff she had spoken to would not want them to replace in-person contact.
An SPS spokesperson told the magazine the service wanted lasting changes to how it supports people at their most vulnerable. The spokesperson said: “This includes the piloting of signs of life technology, which will help our staff keep people safe by monitoring movements in a way which is proportionate and not intrusive.”
Fatal Accident Inquiry
Katie Allan, 21, and a 16-year-old boy died at Polmont within four months of each other in 2018.
The boy had repeatedly been in care. He went to prison because no place was available for him in a secure children’s home. Ms Allan had served three months of a 16-month term. Her offences were drink driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Sheriff Simon Collins KC published the findings of his Fatal Accident Inquiry into both deaths in January 2025. He found that a “catalogue of failures” had led to the deaths and made 25 recommendations.
One recommendation said the SPS should actively pilot and review in-cell ‘signs of life’ technology at Polmont. The Sheriff said the pilot should cover standard cells as well as Safer Cells. He set January 2026 as the deadline for the SPS to report its results to the Scottish Government.
Young men aged 18 to 21 in Scotland are held only at Polmont. Scotland no longer sends under-18s to prison. The establishment also holds women aged 21 and over, and men assessed as low-risk.
