‘A train wreck’: Opposition slams Unit 18 report, calls for facility to close

The state opposition has repeated its call for Unit 18, the notorious youth wing in Perth’s maximum security adult prison, to be closed down, saying if the government had listened 18 months ago, teenager Cleveland Dodd would not have died.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Peter Collier said he believed the portfolio was a “slow train wreck” and urged Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia to do some “soul-searching.”

Shadow Minister for Police and Corrective Services Peter Collier speaks about the new findings. Credit: Holly Thompson

His comments come after a damning report was released, uncovering serious systematic failures, with revelations staff were watching movies or “resting” while the 16-year-old took his own life last month.

While Collier applauded the changes that had occurred so far at Banksia Hill, out of which the most complex and troubled youths had been moved to Unit 18, he said the stopgap unit had not received the same changes and that it was clear the failures revealed in the report were systematic and not a one-off.

“What I read today – in terms of officers watching television, not having the body cameras, not having the keys – I mean, it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious,” he said.

“It is not a rehabilitation facility. It is a punitive facility and it is counterproductive.

“When you’ve got a minister and a premier spouting the virtues of ‘lock them up,’ of demonising the juveniles [nothing will] change.

“He’s got to change his mindset because [if he doesn’t] we’re going to see more deaths in custody.”

Collier also slammed Papalia for his “absolutely disgraceful exhibition” in Parliament earlier this week, when he “held up a bevy of so-called weapons that some of these detainees had constructed”.

The weapons were made by Unit 18 youths during recent times in which they have been confined to their cells up to 20 hours a day.

Collier said Papalia showing the weapons took parliament to a new low.

“What on earth is that going to do to change the culture of protective services and Unit 18?” he said.

“Quite frankly, the minister should hang his head in shame.”

Papalia said the weapons highlighted why the detainees could not return to Banksia Hill, a move he said could expose other detainees and staff to serious danger.

“The nature of the individuals and the behaviour of those housed in Unit 18 is challenging, complex, and it is often dangerous,” he said.

Cleveland Dodd’s family issued a statement following the release of the report.

“Our family grieves. Our son, brother, grandson is back on Country to be buried and his spirit rest strong with our ancestors,” it read.

“Our beloved is buried before his time, long before. Our loved one’s memory must be of changes that guarantee young lives supported.

“Change is not delivered by words alone. We will praise change when we see it in the lives of our children who have been betrayed by a sinful invader, generation after generation since invasion.

“We are the First People, children of the sunrise who have walked this continent’s earth a thousand generations.”

Dodd had been charged with 157 offences since 2018, and had made 139 court appearances.

Once incarcerated he had been involved in a range of incidents including assaults, attempted suicide, cell damage, fighting, rooftop incidents, and four assaults on staff.

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