Troubled youth prison unit should be closed urgently after Indigenous teenager Cleveland Dodd’s death: coroner | Indigenous Australians

The coroner investigating the death of local teenager Cleveland Dodd has called for the youth detention unit where he was being held to be closed and investigated after finding his death was caused by long-standing failures in the justice system.

Cleveland was found unresponsive in a cell in the troubled Unit 18, the youth wing of the Casuarina high-security adult prison in Perth’s south, in the early hours of October 12, 2023.

The 16-year-old boy, who was in critical condition, died about a week later, becoming the first child to die in a detention facility in Western Australia.

Coroner Phil Urquhart said the unit should be closed immediately and a special inquest with more powers than the coroner’s court should be held into how the unit was set up.

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“No child in custody deserves to be treated the way Cleveland and the other young people in Unit 18 were treated when he decided to end his life,” he said in a statement Monday.

Prolonged solitary confinement, isolation, intense boredom, eating alone and lack of access to healthcare, education and running water are the norm for Cleveland and other detainees, he said.

“There were serious deficiencies in the treatment of our young people in custody,” Urquhart said.

“Cleveland’s death was not due to human error by those working in the field… it was due to long-standing serious deficiencies in the system.”

The coroner made 15 adverse findings and 19 recommendations, including the establishment of a forum to investigate whether the Ministry of Justice should have sole management of youth justice.

Their findings included that Cleveland was subjected to excessive solitary confinement in his cell and was not properly monitored while there.

Cleveland’s damaged cell also had a sticking point that authorities knew about but had not been repaired, and he had been denied access to counseling despite repeatedly requesting it and threatening to harm himself.

During the inquest, the court heard youth justice was in crisis at the time of Cleveland’s death.

Staff described the appalling conditions in which young people were detained and the chaotic working environment in Unit 18; some said it was a “war zone.”

In the 12 days before he self-harmed, Cleveland spent one to two hours each day away from his damaged and unfurnished cell.

Adam Tomison, the former director general of the Ministry of Justice, accepted under cross-examination that it was “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment.

The investigation stated that Cleveland self-harmed at around 1.35am and staff did not open his cell door to help him for more than 15 minutes, with paramedics arriving 15 minutes later.

The teenager was partially resuscitated and taken to hospital but suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen.

He died surrounded by his family on October 19, 2023.

The WA government has previously said many improvements have been made to youth justice since Cleveland’s death and that a purpose-built facility to house detainees in Unit 18 would be completed within three years.

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