A grieving family is planning to sue Addiewell – Scotland’s only private prison – for negligence after their beloved son and brother died alone in his cell at just 22-years old while waiting for mental health support.
Jordan Burns made multiple suicide attempts in the ten months he spent on remand in Addiewell facing charges of assault.
While inside, Jordan’s attempts on his own life included trying to jump from a landing and setting fire to his cell. He had several drug overdoses and had to be resuscitated twice.
In one harrowing incident just weeks before his death he took a razor blade to his throat and called his then-solicitor, threatening to kill himself. He told the lawyer he had been waiting for mental health support for months.
When he died on 10 November 2023 he had not been given medication for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) previously prescribed, or been treated for his mental health issues.
His mother, Janice Burns, says the prison – which is partly owned and run by private company Sodexo – “served a death sentence” on her son. An additional 67 per cent of the private jail is owned by Infrastructure Investment Holdings, an arm of London investment firm, HICL Infrastructure.
With the support of human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, Janice is planning to take legal action against the prison.
Politicians including the local SNP MSP called for the Scottish Government to investigate the facts surrounding his death and campaigners said the mandatory fatal accident inquiry into Jordan’s death, caused by a drug overdose, must be held urgently.
Sodexo said their thoughts were with the family. Lothian and Borders NHS, which provides healthcare in the prison, claimed that it was “committed to ensuring all prisoners have access to timely mental health services”.
Last year there were a record 64 deaths in Scottish prisons with the average age of those who died being just 49. Jordan was one of 40 people who died in jail in 2023.
“His cries for help were ignored,” Janice said. “They took my boy’s life before it had even started. He was sent to Addiewell on remand, was there for almost a year and when he came home to me it was in a box.
“This has happened to too many people. I just want to help change things so no other young boy or family has to go through this.”
She asked not to be identified in the picture we took to protect her younger children. But she wanted to share the pictures of Jordan that fill her home – a beaming little boy in his over-sized, first school uniform, a more pensive young man hugging the family dog. In one of his mother’s favourites his arm is around his youngest brother, still just six.
Burns admits her son was no angel and had troubled teenage years which led to a criminal record. “But he was loving and funny and smart”, she told us and adored by his siblings and friends.
Results from the post mortem concluded he died of a drug overdose but it cannot answer Janice’s question about her son’s intentions that night. She is certain of two things though. “My son didn’t deserve to die,” she said. “And his death was preventable.
Janice and her lawyer claim Jordan had previously been on the prison “Talk to Me” suicide prevention strategy but he was not on the programme when he died.
“I feel like someone has ripped my heart out,” she added. “Someone there could have helped him. But nobody did. Instead he was punished.” Nobody in authority called to tell her what was happening, she claims.
After Jordan died she says prison officers came to her home to give her the news – delivered in front of her other children. But they stayed just 15 minutes and couldn’t tell her what happened.
When Janice phoned the prison she claims she was told she couldn’t see what officers referred to as “the body” until Jordan was in the mortuary. But she was given the wrong details for the morgue, which left her calling others to find him without success. She only managed to view Jordan three days after his death.
At a meeting with Addiewell governor Samantha Pariser four months after Jordan’s death, Janice claims she was not allowed to have her advocate from charity Families Outside in the room though a prison officer she had never met was present. Her anxiety meant she forgot all her questions.
She says she would not have felt legal action was necessary if Addiewell had apologised for Jordan’s death, been accountable and promised change.
Addiewell has been subject to intense criticism in recent years. A damning report published in May 2023 found less than one third of inmates said they felt safe and one in four claimed to have been assaulted or abused by staff.
A freedom of information request passed to The Ferret shows that on the night Jordan died three of the prison wings were in lockdown and more than one in ten of the 109 “operational staff” were off sick. Staff shortages are a longstanding issue in the prison.
In 2023/24, the prison had to pay £2.7m to the Scottish Prison Service for failing to meet agreed performance indicators in the last financial year. In the same year it paid out more than £1.5m of dividends to its shareholders.
Last year the prison offered an apology to the family of Callum Inglis who died of Covid-19 in his cell in 2021. He had been coughing up blood and struggling to breathe but did not receive medical attention.
This January fatal accident inquiries into the deaths of Katie Allan and William Brown found Polmont Young Offenders Institute guilty of a “catalogue of failures”. That prison is run by the Scottish Prison Service, which unlike the privately run Addiewell, is exempt from prosecution.
Lawyer Aamer Anwar has claimed that Crown granted immunity from prosecution gives prisons “a licence to kill” and has called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to revoke it.
The family of Alan Marshall – the prisoner who died at HMP Edinburgh in 2015 after being restrained and dragged through a corridor by up to 17 prison officers – are working with their lawyers to take action against the Scottish Prison Service.
The prison effectively sanctioned a death sentence and for that they should face prosecution.
Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer
Since Jordan died in November 2023, there have been 14 more deaths in Addiewell. A recent report from an international rights monitoring body gave Scottish prisons an overall a grade of D – indicating regular violations of human rights standards – for the provision of “timely mental health care”.
Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, who also represented the Allan and Brown families, said Jordan was “severely mistreated” while in prison.
“There was no care plan for a desperate young man following multiple suicide attempts,” he added. “The prison effectively sanctioned a death sentence and for that they should face prosecution. Instead of getting justice, families like Jordan’s face the possibility of years of gaslighting, lies, and cover ups before a fatal accident inquiry that cannot even assign blame or determine guilt.”
Deborah Coles, director of UK charity Inquest, which provides expertise on state related deaths, said: “The treatment of the grieving family of this young man is absolutely inhumane and unacceptable and someone at the highest level must be held accountable.
“There are really important questions that must be raised in relation to this case. The fatal accident inquiry must happen as a matter of urgency.”
Research by Glasgow University has consistently found that suicide risk has been missed by prison officers with fatal accident inquiries failing to make recommendations for change that they claim are urgently needed.
Professor Sarah Armstrong, who leads the research, told The Ferret: “Jordan’s tragic death, following repeated requests for help and clear signs he was in crisis, is sadly among a number in Scottish prisons in recent years.
“There were six fatal accident inquiries published in 2024 involving prison suicide. In none of these was the person being supported through Talk to Me. In all of these cases, the people had asked for help or been flagged for urgent referrals which did not happen. Something is seriously wrong in Scotland’s prisons.”
Scottish Labour Justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill said: “Jordan’s family deserve answers about his death and it is not right that they have had to fight so hard for the truth. The SNP government must urgently investigate what went on here.”
Fulton MacGregor, SNP MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston, where the family lives, added: “This family deserves answers and I am willing to do all that I can to support them.”
Dr Tracey Gillies, medical director, for NHS Lothian said it was “committed to ensuring all prisoners have access to timely mental health services”. Prisoners also have access to support through in-cell phones, she added and she claimed prescribed medication is checked on arrival in prison.
An HMP Addiewell spokesperson said its thoughts were with the Burns family and said it understood “how difficult this time continues to be”. It said it could not comment further while waiting for a fatal accident inquiry into Jordan’s death.
The Scottish Prison Service claimed 53 percent of the 64 deaths in Scottish jails last year were due to “natural causes”. Prisoners have unrestricted access to the Samaritans service via in-cell telephones and families can now phone the prison to raise mental health concerns, they added.
If you have been impacted by the issues raised in this story you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or if you have a family member in prison you can contact Families Outside on 0800 254 0088
The prison is a joke they waited over a week to take my son to hospital for a absence in his mouth if they left him for another week it would of been fatal the jail is a joke I put in for video calls and they don’t bring them down my son has a lot of mental health problems and they don’t do anything to help them
My son was in this prison less than 20hrs when I got a fone call to say my son was in St
John’s hospital critical all they said there was an incident at lunch time so am advised to go to hospital they said my son had mental health owing to loosing his sister 7yrs before she was only 25yrs & my son passed also 25yrs a don’t no how am still here today my son left a diary & hold me to contact scottish government the way he was treated a just want justice for my sun & the f.a.i is in June this Yr nearly 6yr a have waited for this 💙 💔