'I’m just not made for prison': Jailed student Katie Allan's tragic last letter to parents before taking her own life
15 January 2024, 16:32 | Updated: 15 January 2024, 17:18
The final letter of a prison inmate who took her own life has revealed her heartbreaking last words "amid horrifying bullying in prison".
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Katie Allan, 21, was found dead in Polmont Young Offenders Institution in Scotland in 2018, after being jailed for dangerous driving while over the limit.
A note was discovered beside her lifeless body which revealed how Katie felt that she "couldn’t go on" after being bullied.
Katie said she feared for her safety after being threatened by other prisoners, for which she claimed to have received little to no support from prison officers.
In the tragic letter addressed to her parents, Linda and Stuart Allan, Katie describes how she was "not made for prison at all" and could no longer deal with all the hurtful things that were being said to her.
Struggling to sleep and suffering from alopecia, Katie expressed that she was finding prison life difficult to bear, writing in the letter that she was "fed up with this place and the people in it".
Mr and Mrs Allan have launched an attack on Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, through their solicitor, after asserting that systematic failures at the institution led to their daughter’s untimely death.
The couple have blasted Mr Yousaf for not taking action to ensure that authorities within the Scottish Prison Service was forced to face prosecution for deaths occurring on their watch.
Cruelly, Katie's parents were told the day after her death that if they wished to read her last letter, they would have to collect it from a police station.
Linda said: "Despite being unable to function and in total shock, we had been told that if we wanted to see Katie’s suicide note, we had to visit Falkirk CID, so we did".
She added: "She was frightened of coming home, so deep was her remorse. We had been so desperate to read this letter, hoping against hope that it would give us answers. It did."
The letter, which was published in the Mail on Sunday, read: "Dear Mum and Dad I’m really sorry it had to end this way but I just couldn’t go on.
"I’m so sorry I failed you both as a daughter and Scott as a sister. I’m just not made for prison at all and could no longer deal with all the hurtful things that were getting said.
"I loved you both with all my heart but to be honest the thing that scared me the most was coming home. I've made some seriously poor choices in my life."
In another letter that Katie write weeks before she took her life, she revealed that she spoke to prison authorities to discuss the "best option for my safety" in a bid to stay positive about her situation.
She added: “Please believe me I will be okay just hate this place and a few of the people in it really aren’t making things any easier, don’t see why people need to be so cruel Mum.
“Anyway I’ll find out as soon as I can where xxxxx is going to, and I’ll let you know. Can’t believe xxxx behaviour. Really missing home mum and my 'normal' life. Fed up with this place and the people in it."
Katie, from Clarkston, Renfrewshire, was a student at Glasgow University, studying geography, before a fatal chain of events which started when she was driving over the limit, that resulted in the injuries sustained by a 15-year-old boy.
She was jailed on March 5, 2018, for 16 months for dangerous driving while over the limit.
Her mother Linda has vowed to fight for "radical change" so that "no other young person in Scotland today experiences such a catalogue of catastrophic events at the hands of the Scottish justice system."
