WA Premier meets Cleveland Dodd’s mother after damning inquest findings

The mother of a boy who was the first child to die inside a Western Australian youth detention centre says she is deeply disappointed the state government will reject some of the coroner’s findings into her son’s death.Nadene Dodd met with Premier Roger Cook two days after a coroner made scathing findings about the death of her son Cleveland who took his own life inside WA’s notorious Unit 18.

Ms Dodd said her meeting with Mr Cook was compassionate, sincere and deeply emotional and she felt he understood how sad it was that it took her son’s death to change West Australia’s youth justice system.

“The very change that would have saved Cleveland’s life. He understood the weight of that. I left feeling that my son’s life mattered to him,” she said.

But Ms Dodd does not believe enough has been done saying, “improvements alone are not safety”.

“I don’t believe the government has fully tapped into the experts who truly know what children need inside these places,” she said.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has joined a chorus of voices echoing for the immediate closure of Unit 18 saying they were deeply concerned the centre was still operating.

“Every day it operates within an adult prison environment is another day of unacceptable risk for vulnerable children,” Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said.

“The commission stands ready to work with the state to ensure its response is timely, transparent and sets a benchmark for all Australian governments to follow.

“I will also continue to work closely with my colleagues at the Human Rights Commission and other leading advocates … to drive these reforms and ensure the rights and wellbeing of our children are protected.”

The deadly facility was the subject of a coronial inquest examining the death of Cleveland Dodd, 16, who was the first child to die while being detained at a youth detention centre in WA.

Coroner Philip Urquhart told the inquest the Premier, state government ministers and the Department of Justice repeatedly ignored warnings that a child would die inside the unit prior to Cleveland’s death.

The Aboriginal Legal Service warned the time for a punitive punishment to detain young people in WA had long passed and that a death in custody was inevitable.

The Children’s Court president Hylton Quail told media he had sleepless nights about the 16 boys who were locked down 23 hours a day in dire conditions that needed to be urgently fixed.

“I dread that a boy will suicide there, or a staff member be seriously harmed,” he said.

Former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley and the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services also warned authorities.

“Sadly, their predictions came true with Cleveland’s death,” Coroner Philip Urquhart said when he handed down his findings.

He found Unit 18 was far from a safe environment where detainees received intensive support, spruiked by the department.

Staff described the facility as chaotic, dangerous, a war zone, traumatic, soul destroying and that cells were unliveable.

“That was no exaggeration – in Cleveland’s case, his cell had had no running water for 21 days before his hanging incident,” Mr Urquhart said.

“Custodial staff had to flush his cell’s toilet by external means.”

The coroner said the amount of time Cleveland spent alone in his cell was disturbing and for 74 of his last 87 days at Unit 18 he was locked in his cell for more than 22 hours each day.

He said this sort of incarceration was inhumane and reminiscent of 19th century jails.

“It is difficult to comprehend the despair and despondency Cleveland would have felt living in these appalling conditions,” he said.

The inquest was told Cleveland was denied access to water, education, made multiple threats to self harm, was unable to speak with a psychologist and could not call his mother before he took his own life.

Cleveland’s mother lived 1000km away from Unit 18 — a wing attached to Casuarina Prison, which is an adult maximum security jail in Perth — making it almost impossible for her to visit.

The coroner made 15 adverse findings against the department and 19 recommendations, including calls for the immediate closure of the facility.

The state government has not supported that finding along with others including a recommendation to hold a special inquiry to examine how Unit 18 was established.

The facility was set up in a hurry after juvenile detainees held at WA’s only other youth detention centre, Banksia Hill, rioted and caused millions of dollars worth of damage to buildings.

Cleveland’s mother “absolutely” wants a special inquiry and as many inquiries that it takes to keep shining a light into every facet of the state’s youth justice system.

“They keep exposure alive. They prevent things from being buried. They push change forward,” she said.

“Without scrutiny, children continue to be harmed in the dark. Cleveland’s death must not fade; it must be the reason we never repeat these mistakes.

“I want to see 100 per cent of the coroner’s findings taken up. Every single one.

“I am deeply disappointed that the Department of (Justice) has already said they will reject some of the recommendations.

“That saddens me greatly. My son died. These findings exist because he died. The minimum honour to his life is to implement them all.

“Cleveland’s death must lead to full and lasting change — for every child who will enter Banksia Hill or any youth facility. We must not fail another child.”

The WA government is building a new $158m juvenile detention centre near Perth that is due to open in three years, and plan to keep Unit 18 operating until the new facility is ready.

The Department of Justice acknowledged the inquest’s findings and implemented several reforms following Cleveland’s death in 2023.

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said conditions inside WA’s youth detention centres had significantly changed in the past two years.

He said while Unit 18 was not the best facility to house the cohort detained there, it was the only facility.

“It’s about providing the best possible management and supervision and support to what is a complex, challenging and very often violent and dangerous cohort,” he said.

“The coroner didn’t deny that, but said the current Unit 18 is not fit for purpose.

“The fact is, there is no facility in the state more fit for purpose than Unit 18 to house this cohort. It’s a dangerous, complex and challenging cohort and that’s why we’re building a purpose design facility to replace Unit 18.”

But the coroner found Unit 18 was not fit for purpose as a youth detention centre during Cleveland’s last period of detention and remained not fit for purpose to house detainees with severe neurocognitive disorders and some of the state’s most vulnerable children.

“All the academic, medical and scientific evidence is that the continued operation of Unit 18 is detrimental to the detainees who are kept there,” Mr Urquhart said.

“No child in detention deserves to be treated in the way Cleveland and the other young people in Unit 18 were treated at the time he decided to end his life.

“Prolonged periods in solitary confinement, isolation, intense boredom, eating all their meals by themselves, and lack of access to mental health services, education and even running water.

“This, sadly, had become the norm for Cleveland and many of his fellow detainees.”

The coroner said at the time of Cleveland’s death there were serious deficiencies in the way young people were treated in detention that were exposed during the inquest.

He said Cleveland’s death was not because of human error by those working on the floor on the night he died, but because of serious and longstanding deficiencies in the system.

“It must be remembered that the misbehaviour of young people when in detention is often a symptom of the neurological impairments they have suffered for much, if not their entire, lives,” he said.

“Their misbehaviour is also a symptom of the deficiencies that exist within youth justice in this State; for the most part their misbehaviour is not the cause of those deficiencies.”

Social justice advocate Gerry Georgatos also called for every one of the coroner’s recommendations to be implemented.

“We must close Unit 18 immediately and thus compel all ways forward and replace it with environments built on nurture, education, healing, and human dignity,” he said.

“We must do right by these children. They have endured suffering unimaginable to most Australian households. We must be better than this.”

He said true safety came from expert-led, nurturing, trauma-informed, education-rich environments.

“WA still has a long way to go. The system must be redesigned, not patched. The government must place education under the Department of Education, health under Health, and ensure expertise guides everything,” he said.

“What we need are life-transformers, not punitive containment.”