Coroner calls for urgent closure of troubled youth jail

Connie Georgatos reads from a statement by Cleveland Dodd's mother Nadene. Video by AAP

Transcript

00:00It breaks my heart to know that from the moment he was transferred to unit 18,

00:04Cleveland never got the chance to go outside, to feel the sun on his skin, to breathe in fresh air,

00:10to look at the sky. Instead, Cleveland spent his time locked down for almost 24 hours of the day,

00:17day in and day out, for weeks on end. The images I saw of him surrounded by uneven plates of food

00:24could not be unseen. The concrete box in which he took his last breaths was barren and filthy.

00:30Cleveland deserved more. All children deserve more. Institutional abuse of children is

00:36unacceptable in the same way that any abuse of children is unacceptable.

00:41We should hold governments to a higher, not a lower, standard.

00:54you