Coroner in Cleveland Dodd inquest indicates he may call for urgent closure of Unit 18

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The WA Coroner has indicated he may call for the urgent closure of controversial youth detention facility, Unit 18. The landmark inquest into the state's first recorded death in youth detention has heard from its final witness, with the coroner's findings not expected until late next year. He's considering recommendations including closing the makeshift unit where the teenager self-harmed. And a warning this story contains references to suicide, and the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family.

Transcript

00:00Over nearly 40 days of hearings, Nadine Dodd has heard in excruciating detail the litany

00:08of problems in youth justice prior to her son's death.

00:1116-year-old Cleveland Dodd died in October last year, a week after self-harming inside

00:17his cell at Unit 18, a youth detention facility inside Maximum Security Casuarina Prison.

00:23Ms Dodd offered one of the final pieces of the puzzle, a statement capturing her grief

00:28and hope for the future.

00:30Cleveland was denied the opportunity to realise his potential, the statement read by a friend

00:35to the court said.

00:36I know he would have been a great and noble man who would have overcome the challenges

00:41and battles that led him to the horrible concrete jungle of Bankshire Hill and then to the hellhole

00:46of Unit 18.

00:47Ms Dodd pledging to carry on her son's legacy and asking for those responsible to be held

00:53to account.

00:54I just didn't want my family to go through what we've been through.

00:57The evidence presented to the court has been confronting at times, from reliving Cleveland's

01:01final moments and staff describing the unit as set up to fail and a war zone, to admissions

01:07of lies and treatment amounting to institutional child abuse.

01:11Coroner Phillip Urquhart concluded this stage of the inquest by outlining 18 preliminary

01:16recommendations.

01:17He's considering telling the government to close Unit 18 as a matter of urgency given

01:22it was only ever meant to be temporary.

01:25If it's kept open, he may ask for young people to be housed there for a maximum of six weeks

01:30at a time.

01:31Another potential recommendation, that youth justice not remain part of the Department

01:36of Justice.

01:37The Premier and Corrective Services Minister haven't shown much appetite for many of those

01:40key suggestions when they've been put forward in the past.

01:43They insist conditions in detention have improved significantly.

01:47We know we aren't going to get him back but I reckon Unit 18 should be closed down for

01:51good.

01:52The coroner is planning to hear oral closing submissions in June before releasing his findings

01:57and recommendations.

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