WA government apologises to family of Cleveland Dodd at inquest into his death

Australia Broadcast Center

7 hours ago

WARNING: This story discusses incidents of self-harm and contains the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died.
The WA government has formally apologised to the family of Cleveland Dodd, whose death was the state's first recorded fatality in youth detention.
Cleveland was 16 when he died after self-harming inside Unit 18 — a youth detention facility hurriedly set up inside maximum-security Casuarina Prison.
An inquest probing his death began more than a year ago, and today heard closing submissions from lawyers on behalf of those involved in the case.
Through its lawyer, the WA Justice Department apologised for its failings "connected with Cleveland's death".
They said there had been "great change" in youth detention since and its Commissioner expressed "regret and remorse" for what had happened.
Grant Donaldson SC is representing Christine Ginbey, who was the deputy commissioner for women and young people at the time of Cleveland's death.
He told the court "there could be no doubt there was a staffing problem at Unit 18" which contributed to young people getting minimal time out of their cells.
The inquest had earlier heard that in Cleveland's final 86 days in detention, he was allowed outside in the yard for a total of only four hours and 10 minutes — an average of less than three minutes a day.
But he said staffing was an "extraordinarily complex issue" and that it was difficult to get people to work in jails and detention centres as required skills were difficult to train.
Mr Donaldson also said his client should not be blamed for inaccuracies in a promotional video she recorded about how Unit 18 would operate, because they had been drafted by a strategic communications professional and checked by the then-director general.
Earlier, before Mr Donaldson made his arguments, Cleveland's mother Nadene said she had to walk out of court because "the recapping of the horrific neglect of my son was inhumane beyond words".
"It was both barbarous and criminal," she said.
"If people are not held to lawful account then justice will have been denied."
Her lawyer Stephen Penglis SC had told the court Ms Dodd wanted the Justice Department to implement all recommendations made by the coroner to minimise the chance of another young person taking their life in detention.
Mr Penglis said the small amount of time Cleveland spent outside of his cell amounted to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment".
He water was not given to Cleveland on the night he died despite his repeated requests, and that his threats of self-harm were not taken seriously.
Because hatches in cell doors had been welded shut, providing water required "breaching" the cell, which needed the permission of the senior officer overnight.
Mr Penglis said on the night Cleveland self-harmed, the officer on duty's refusal to do so was an "unreasonable, egregious and inexcusable failure" to provide a "human right".
But Edward Greaves, representing that officer, Kyle Mead-Hunter, rejected those suggestions, saying his client had been told Cleveland was given extra water with dinner and that he did not recall any staff asking him to authorise further providing further water.
"To try and blame this on one person and to blame it on Mr Mead-Hunter does not pass the test, in our submission."
Mr Greaves had earlier accepted an adverse finding would be made against Mr Mead-Hunter for not wearing his radio on the night, which meant the officer who found Cleveland had to walk to Mr Mead-Hunter's office to get a key to unlock him.
He said Mr Mead-Hunter "was failed by the system" and that "he learnt how the unit ran at night time from the [youth custodial officers] he was supposed to be leading".
The Aboriginal Legal Service's lawyer Julian McMahon told the court the situation in youth detention prior to Cleveland's death had deteriorated because all levels of the department had been ready "to accept what is clearly, what was clearly, unacceptable".
"We mustn't become immune to the horror of that concept, that a boy with some disability, with serious difficulties, was actually in solitary confinement for the last few months of his life," she said.
Mr McMahon said there had been warnings about the issues at Unit 18 from when it opened and many of the first detainees there were recorded as self-harming.
"What that tells you … is at that at that time and in hindsight without doubt, enormous resources were required and it tells you that without that enormous effort which did not eventuate Unit 18 was destined to and indeed did fail as a project," he said.