A Safer Place to Live: Wellbeing Led Design and Suicide Prevention in Scottish Prisons

Synopsis

Prisons are living environments which accommodate people with high levels of vulnerability, trauma and mental ill-health – yet they lack the design standards found in healthcare settings. This session shares learning from Fatal Accident Inquiries into deaths in custody and how they will shape a wellbeing‑led approach to safer prison environments. We will explore the challenge of reducing suicide risk while preserving dignity, autonomy and connection in spaces that people live in for months or years. Drawing on multidisciplinary design work, pilot activity and lived experience, this session invites collaboration to help define what safe, humane and realistic prison design could look like.