Mother of boy who died in youth prison slams ‘unacceptable abuse’

The lengthy inquest has laid bare the horrors of a state’s juvenile detention system teetering on collapse.

Cleveland Dodd and his mother, Nadene.

The mother of Cleveland Dodd, the 16-year-old boy from the West Australian desert who took his own life in a maximum security men’s prison in Perth, has told a coroner her son lost the will to live after being locked down alone in a concrete cell for 23 hours a day for 75 days.

Nadene Dodd asked a friend to read her statement on Wednesday to WA Coroner Philip Urquhart. Ms Dodd watched on from the public gallery, silently at first then sobbing.

Sections of the public gallery also burst into tears when Connie Georgatos read out what Ms Dodd had learned at the inquest about Cleveland’s final weeks.

“The images I saw of him surrounded by uneaten plates of food cannot be unseen – the concrete box in which he took his last breaths was barren and filthy,” Ms Dodd wrote in her statement to the coroner.

“Cleveland deserved more.

“All children deserve more.”

Cleveland grew up in Laverton in WA’s northern goldfields. Like some 70 per cent of the youths incarcerated in WA, he was Aboriginal.

Mr Urquhart on Wednesday flagged preliminary findings on Cleveland’s death including that the unit where he died should be closed as soon as possible.

The 34-day inquest laid bare the horrors of a juvenile detention system teetering on collapse. The state’s only juvenile detention facility – Banksia Hill – was supposed to be a therapeutic environment with sport and an on-site school but it was chaotic and chronically understaffed. With not even enough guards to let youths out of their cells for exercise, prisoners were routinely locked down for 23-24 hours a day in 2021 and 2022.

When the boys rebelled by digging out bricks to escape and running on rooftops, bureaucrats plotted to move the most “challenging” to Unit 18 of the notorious adult jail Casuarina.

Cleveland Dodd, 16, who died in custody.

At Unit 18, Cleveland and other boys languished in even harsher conditions although with less surveillance because guards could not observe them from the control room except on small cameras that the boys covered up with toilet paper and spit.

To prevent boys protesting their circumstances by causing water damage in the cells, authorities turned the water off, including to the toilets.

Cleveland was left to call out for a paper cup of water when he was thirsty.

The inquest heard that at times he went all day without drinking any water.

Cleveland made many threats on his life and was found unresponsive in his cell on Oct­ober 12 last year.

He did not recover.

“Institutional abuse of children is unacceptable, in the same way that any abuse of children is unacceptable,” Ms Dodd wrote in her statement. “We should hold governments to a higher, not a lower, standard.

“I thought my son was safe at Banksia Hill and Unit 18, and that he would leave detention rehabilitated and re-engaged, better not worse off.

“But my boy never stood a chance of regaining consciousness after he was found hanging. His mind and his spirit died in that cell, not in the hospital.”

The inquest learned that in May 2022, the state Corrective Services Department’s then director-general Adam Tomison did not want to move a cohort of “challenging” youths out of Banksia Hill to a second facility.

He felt it was preferable to instead stabilise Banksia Hill. However, senior departmental figures were talking about it and researching it anyway.

The union representing guards was advocating for it and guards asked their bosses at one meeting what the “threshold” was to trigger such a move.

Ultimately the recommendation to put youths in the adult jail went to the cabinet of the McGowan Labor government and the first boys were shifted to Unit 18 in July 2022.

The department’s efforts to protect itself have been a feature of the inquest. An email shown to the inquest on Wednesday revealed that when the state commissioner for children and young people wanted to inspect Banksia Hill in July 2022, a senior executive warned a colleague that youths needed to be seen out of their cells.

Banksia Hill was by then well known for its 23 to 24-hour cell lockdowns because the president of the state children’s court, Hylton Quail, had exposed the practice in blistering remarks in February 2022.

Judge Quail detailed the cruel and illegal treatment of one 15-year-old boy who spent the entire previous summer locked down, including Christmas Day.

In the email on July 21, 2022, Corrective Services deputy commissioner Christine Ginbey wrote to a colleague about the impending visit by the children’s commissioner that “The young people need to be out and actively participating in activities”.

Ms Ginbey predicted that the children’s commissioner would want to see the special handling unit for youths, which has the most restrictive cells and regime, and wrote “Ideally, we would have no one in there”.

The coroner will take closing submissions before making final recommendations.