00:01Linton Ryan's family are in mourning after the 31-year-old died in his prison cell in April.
00:08The Noongar Wongai Adyamatna man killed himself while on remand at the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison.
00:16In the days that followed, a Kalgoorlie police officer sent a voice note to a friend.
00:22I interviewed a man the other day, and he was like, I'm going to kill myself.
00:26And I was like, yeah, whatever, put him in the cells. He went to prison the next day and then he killed himself.
00:30Um, lol. Don't tell anyone that.
00:34His mother and brother are distressed by the recording.
00:37They could have done something before he went and committed a suicide.
00:43And they want answers from authorities.
00:47We need prison and the police to be held accountable. People just can't die in their custody and their care.
00:52In a statement, WA police says the officer has been stood aside following the ABC's inquiry.
00:58An internal affairs investigation has commenced, but it was not appropriate to comment further at this time.
01:04Police arrested Linton on March 28, after a fight with his partner.
01:09He was charged with aggravated assault, occasioning bodily harm, and taken to the Kalgoorlie police watch house.
01:15It's here where Linton told the officer he was going to kill himself.
01:21If a man enters prison in that state with those warning signs and has taken his life, that is a damning indictment on the system.
01:31I present the following reports of the Royal Commission.
01:34More than 30 years after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody found Western Australia had the worst record in the nation.
01:44Data compiled by the Australian Institute of Criminology reveals it still does.
01:48It tells us that we have initial systemic racism, that their life is not being valued and that their Aboriginality is a reason for that.
01:58The WA Department of Justice says the safety and wellbeing of all individuals in its care is a top priority.
02:05The department said it couldn't comment specifically on Linton's death because it's subject to a coronial inquest.
02:13But that could take years for Linton's family to get answers from the coroner.
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