‘A failure has occurred’: Perth teen takes own life at youth prison

Warning: This story carries the name and image of a deceased Indigenous person, with his family’s permission.

A 17-year-old youth has become the second teenager to take their own life in Western Australia’s juvenile detention system in less than a year after being found unresponsive in his cell overnight.

Paramedics were called to Banksia Hill Detention Centre in Perth’s southern suburbs just after 10pm on Thursday after staff found him.

Police have not yet been able to speak with his parents.

In a snap press conference on Friday, WA Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said the teenager received round the clock monitoring for the first 24 hours after being admitted to the detention centre’s intensive supervision unit intoxicated on August 27.

He was given health care and access to clinical support, before being placed into one of the general units shortly after lunch on Thursday.

Royce said the teenager, who has not yet been publicly identified, had spent time outside before returning to his cell at 6.30pm and had used the cell intercom to communicate with staff but insisted there was no cause for alarm.

WA Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce addressing the media after the death on Thursday evening.Credit: Jesinta Burton.

The boy was checked 10 times by staff before being found unresponsive just before 10pm.

“Staff then breached the cell. They were supported by the nurse on the site, and they performed CPR until St John arrived shortly after; but sadly, we couldn’t revive the young man,” Commissioner Royce said.

The teenager’s death comes just 11 months after the passing of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd, who became the first juvenile to die in custody in WA when he took his life at Casuarina Prison’s Unit 18 youth wing.

The tragedy has reignited scrutiny of the youth detention system the state government claims it is trying to overhaul, and follows years of criticism over staffing issues and the use of solitary confinement over a therapeutic and non-punitive operating philosophy.

Cook and Papalia speak about the tragedy at a press conference on Friday morning.Credit: Jesinta Burton

WA Premier Roger Cook acknowledged the youth’s friends and family as well as the staff and first responders confronted with “such a traumatic event”.

“A failure has occurred, but we will continue to ensure we do everything we can to improve the lives of the staff and those at the facility and continue our pathway of reform,” he said.

“The system is not good enough, and we need to continue to improve it.”

But Royce backed in the 17 prison staff and nurse supervising the 57 youths at Banksia overnight, saying all were wearing body-worn cameras, radios and alarms and acted appropriately.

“There’s a lot of work to do, so I take my role seriously, and people do have the right to ask questions of me. But for me, [improving Banksia Hill] is going to take a significant piece of work, and it will be generational,” he said.

Cook said Banksia Hill was a challenging and complex environment that had significantly improved in recent months, with increased resourcing and new infrastructure.

The state’s Police Minister Paul Papalia said eight members of the Aboriginal Elders Support team were now onsite, and the Aboriginal Services Unit was also engaging with young people this morning.

The WA Police chaplain has also been onsite supporting staff.

An internal investigation is under way with police preparing a report for the coroner.

Youth detention expert and family advocate Gerry Georgatos said the systemic issues at the notorious Banksia Hill prison were driven by poor governance.

“It’s not a black person problem, it’s not a brown person problem, it’s not a white person problem – it is the failures of Banksia Hill made by one government after another,” he said.

He urged the state to take heed of restorative programs used in Nordic countries.

“What we have in WA is one of the world’s worst child prisons. We have to call it what it is,” he said.

“The government says it’s rehabilitative. That lie cost Cleveland Dodd his life. That lie cost this boy’s life.

“I am praying that they finally see the light. How many deaths is it going to take? We’ve had one, now we’ve had two; we have become a national shame.”

‘I told you so’: Opposition calls for Papalia’s resignation

Opposition corrective services spokesman Peter Collier has demanded Papalia’s resignation while castigating the government over the death, which he said was the product of successive premiers and ministers ignoring juvenile justice advocates.

Collier said the juvenile justice system was fatally flawed and the state’s most marginalised children were bearing the brunt.

Opposition corrective services spokesman Peter Collier outside WA Parliament House on Friday.Credit: Jesinta Burton.

“Can I say, unambiguously, I told you so. I don’t want to use this young man’s life as a political pawn, but it has got to stop,” he said.

“[The minister] has got to go, without a shadow of a doubt. The culture needs to change ... you need someone at the top that actually has genuine empathy for disengaged youth and that is attuned to rehabilitation.

“If we’re going to be a safer community, if we’re going to make life better for those juveniles that have struggled through life, we need to adopt a rehabilitative approach, not a punitive one, and if you don’t want to take my word for it, have a look at the coroner’s [court] in the past two months.”

WA Greens MLC Brad Pettitt said he was “devastated” by the news and called for urgent reform of a system he said was “harming more than helping”.

Amnesty International also levelled scathing criticism on Friday, reiterating calls for the WA government to close Banksia Hill over the risk it posed to detained children and to appoint an independent body to probe deaths in custody.

The charity’s Indigenous rights campaigner Kacey Teerman said the death was entirely preventable.

“How many times, by how many experts, does the WA government need to be warned about the dangers of their youth detention centres? How many more Aboriginal children will die before the WA government closes down these inhumane, dangerous youth prisons?” she said.

The Law Society of WA’s president Paula Wilkinson said the organisation supported an urgent probe into the circumstances surround the “deeply disturbing” death and echoed calls for improved conditions at Banksia Hill and the immediate closure of Unit 18.

Cleveland was found unresponsive inside a cell in the Unit 18 youth wing of Casuarina Prison, an outpost for Banksia Hill’s most troubled youths, in the early hours of October 12, 2023.

The 16-year-old Indigenous boy was taken to hospital in critical condition and died a week later, causing community outrage and grief.

Shocking details about his final days and death have been aired in the Perth inquest into his death which began in July.

If you or someone you know is in need of support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 13YARN (13 92 76). In the event of an emergency dial Triple Zero (000).

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