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  • 13 hours ago
A Coroner will today hand down findings from a landmark inquest into Western Australia's first recorded death in youth detention. Cleveland Dodd died in 2023, after self-harming in his cell inside a juvenile unit at the State's maximum security Casuarina prison. And a warning this story contains content that some viewers may find distressing - it discusses an incident of self-harm and includes the image of an Indigenous person who has died.

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00:00Well, it's been nearly two years since 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd had fatally self-harmed inside
00:08his cell at the Unit 18 facility set up at the Kajarina Prison.
00:14It was meant to be a temporary alternative to house the state's most troubled juvenile
00:19detainees while there had been unrest at the Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre.
00:25However, Unit 18 is still operating today.
00:29The coronial inquiry was held in two parts last year.
00:32The first covered the fatal harm incident itself and the events leading up to it.
00:37We heard from frontline staff who responded that night.
00:41The second part dealt with more systemic issues with high-level bureaucrats who set up and ran
00:47the facility giving evidence.
00:49Some witnesses compared Unit 18 to a war zone and said it had been opened too quickly.
00:55Some described Cleveland's death as preventable.
00:59Coroner Philip Urquhart is set to hand down his findings.
01:02Today, we're expecting he will say that he'd like to see the facility closed as a matter
01:08of urgency.
01:09But it's something the WA government said cannot happen until a replacement facility is built
01:15in three years' time.
01:17In three years' time.
01:20You
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