Cleveland Dodd death: Coroner hands down findings into death of first child to die inside WA juvenile detention centre

WARNING: This story contains the name and images of a deceased indigenous person

A coroner has called for the controversial West Australian juvenile detention centre Unit 18 to be urgently shut down, describing the conditions as “inhumane.”

Coroner Philip Urquhart gave a scathing assessment of how Cleveland Dodd, 16, came to self-harm inside the unit attached to an adult maximum security prison.

Dozens of people attended the Coroner’s Court to support Cleveland’s family as the coroner delivered his findings.

Cleveland, 16, self-harmed inside Unit 18 on October 12, 2023.

He had been held on remand inside the facility for about three months when a guard found him unresponsive in his cell.

Cleveland was rushed to hospital where he was reunited with his family before he took his last breath a week later.

The inquest into Cleveland’s death began in April last year and was the longest-running coronial inquest held in Western Australia, ending in July.

The coroner said authorities ignored several warnings that a child would die inside the unit and that Cleveland’s death was “inevitable”.

“The time for a punitive punishment style approach has long past,” he said.

“It is an immense tragedy when a child makes a decision to end their life, it is magnified if in state care and their death was predicted.

“How was this allowed to happen?”

The coroner said the Unit 18 was anything but a safe place to house some of the state’s most vulnerable children.

He said the evidence from people who worked inside the Unit was alarming, unexpected and confronting.

“Conditions were chaotic, dangerous and like a war zone,” he said.

“Cells were described as unliveable, and that was not an exaggeration.

“Cleveland had no running water for 21 days, they had to flush his toilet by external means.

“The amount of time he spent alone inside his cell was deeply disturbing to hear.”

More to come.