Cleveland Dodd inquest: Stunned reactions from revelations, including Unit 18 to stay open for years

The inquest into the death of teenager Cleveland Dodd is yet to finish but has already revealed WA’s youth detention system has reached depths of dysfunction worse than even its harshest critics could have feared. Since the 16-year-old took his life in his Unit 18 cell in October — WA’s first recorded death of a child in detention — the State Government has stuck to its messaging the facility is necessary for the most dangerous, uncontrollable young criminals. And the Department of Justice has continued to insist it had no choice but to take the drastic measure of establishing it within the maximum-security adult Casuarina Prison. That dreadful night, some youth custodial officers were watching movies on their work computers. Some were seemingly sleeping on the job. Radios were not carried. And the camera in Cleveland’s cell had been covered up for all but a brief moment since mid-afternoon. So when the response finally came, it was too late. At the second tranche of the inquest over the past four weeks, after months of political obfuscations, bombshells kept dropping as the department’s top brass took the stand and had no choice but to fall on their swords in the face of damning evidence. One by one, those who had been deposed, demoted and, in the case of Unit 18’s superintendent at the time Doug Coyne, actually promoted, were dragged before the WA Coroner’s Court, compelled by subpoenas. It emerged five sites had been considered, including Wandoo and Melaleuca women’s prisons. So there was “shock” when the boss of the department Adam Tomison suddenly revealed Casuarina had been chosen, Melanie O’Connell, director of youth custodial operations within the women and young people division, told the court. Unit 18 was described as temporary, only lasting a year in response to ongoing chaos at Banksia Hill Detention Centre. Detainees had worked out how to get out of their cells, where they were being locked down for days on end amid staff shortages, by removing bricks. But having opened in July 2022, Unit 18 is now in its third year, largely blamed on a massive riot at Banksia Hill in May last year that caused $22 million worth of damage. The inquest was told Unit 18 was frantically prepared in just nine days, opening without the promised full suite of services. In fact, bare essentials were lacking, with no clear-fronted cells for at-risk detainees and no on-site nurse. It had been depicted — not just to the then-corrective minister Bill Johnston but to the 17 youths who were moved there from Banksia Hill and their carers — as a far better facility. “It’s light, it’s bright, it’s airy, it’s clean,” then-deputy commissioner for young people Christine Ginbey said in a glowing six-minute video previewing Unit 18. The video has been removed from the department’s website during the inquest. It’s a far cry from the “barbaric dungeon” Children’s Court president Hylton Quail labelled the facility in a December sentencing. Dr Tomison, who insisted his resignation as director-general was entirely his own decision, admitted he signed off on a document convincing Mr Johnston to approve Unit 18 was packed with “grievous lies”, as counsel assisting the coroner Anthony Crocker put it. Dr Tomison briefly broke down as he admitted his shame at being “the guy who was hurting kids”, having been lauded by the department as an internationally recognised expert in the prevention of child maltreatment. He also admitted — contrary to “very bad” and “defensive” testimony he gave the royal commission into the treatment of detainees with disabilities in October 2022 — regularly locking children up in their cells for long periods did indeed constitute abuse. Having not met with Cleveland’s family, his apology to them from the witness stand left them entirely unmoved. Explaining he was counting on his lieutenants to have provided accurate information in the dodgy ministerial pitch, Dr Tomison said he thought the glowing description of Unit 18 “read well”. After hearing what Dr Tomison had told the court, Ms Ginbey, who has had her portfolio reduced to just the women’s custodial estate, hired her own lawyer for the inquest rather than using the State Solicitor’s Office as her ex-boss had done. Her demotion was announced the same day as Mike Reynolds was sacked as Corrective Services commissioner, on October 24 — five days after Cleveland died — but he still used the SSO’s services. Ms Ginbey was only stripped of the young people’s role last month as part of a broader restructure, while Mr Reynolds testified he had been the State Government’s “scapegoat” in the crisis. Ms Ginbey was guarded in her evidence, giving qualifications to her responses and reluctantly agreeing after days of intense questioning by Mr Crocker the messaging about Unit 18 “could have been more fulsome”. Adequate planning would have taken six months, she said. Had the department acted in December 2021 when Inspector of Custodial Services Eamon Ryan sent a rare “show cause” notice, Unit 18 could have been properly set up, Ms Ginbey conceded. In the notice, Mr Ryan raised concerns thatr solitary confinement at Banksia Hill breached not just State legislation — which was then confirmed in two subsequent Supreme Court rulings — but also international human rights obligations. New commissioner Brad Royce left Mr Crocker “deeply disturbed” by saying he was not bound by those international standards, unlike the State laws. Mr Ryan’s comment highlighted the need for the Commonwealth, States, and Territories to incorporate international human rights standards into domestic law, National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds told The Sunday Times. “Only when this is done can we be confident about how vulnerable children will be treated when in the care of corrections or youth justice authorities,” she said this week. Mr Royce, however, gave assurances to the inquest that detainees had been getting required out-of-cell hours since early this year — confirmed by numbers Greens MP Brad Pettitt has doggedly extracted in Parliament. The inquest also uncovered the staggering number of staff it takes to run Unit 18, at a tremendous cost. When this second tranche of the inquest began, it held just eight detainees. Mr Coyne said to ensure all eight of them got out of their cells each day required about 20 youth custodial officers, four prison guards and three other uniformed staff: a unit manager, senior officer and principal officer. Then there’s senior management, including a deputy superintendent and security manager, non-uniformed staff such as the facilities manager, and visiting support services like educators and case planners. That brought the total staff required for just eight kids over 24 hours to 34, Mr Coyne said. Coroner Phil Urquhart and Mr Crocker repeatedly pressed Mr Coyne on what it would take to close Unit 18 as soon as possible and move the detainees — and all those staff — back to Banksia Hill after he said they could be housed in a wing called Jasper. “You could have three to four (custodial officers) keeping basically a permanent eye on those kids in case they misbehave,” Mr Urquhart said. “They could have their own bodyguards following them around.” The new commissioner backed up Mr Coyne’s staffing numbers estimate, and described the eye-watering $3000 per day — or $1.1 million per year — cost of detaining a juvenile at Unit 18 as “phenomenal”. Child health expert Fiona Stanley was visibly stunned hearing the numbers while giving evidence to the inquest — knowing it usually cost around $500,000 a year to detain children. She also appeared gobsmacked to hear that as of Monday, there were just four detainees at Unit 18. Work to “strengthen” the Jasper unit to prevent damage and escape bids would take months, but that could be sped up, Mr Coyne said. “Tell them the Coroner wants that done . . . that should help, shouldn’t it?” Mr Urquhart said of a key aspect of the work, the IT. A short time later, Mr Urquhart remarked to State lawyer David Leigh: “What if I was to find Unit 18 should never have been opened?” But Mr Royce and the new director-general, Kylie Maj, poured cold water on an imminent Unit 18 closure, wanting to keep it open until a new facility was built. That could take up to five years, Mr Royce said, and the business case was not yet complete. Professor Stanley said she was “horrified” to hear Unit 18 could remain open for that long, predicting more suicides. She said an overwhelming number of the detainees had disabilities such as foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and research showed locking them up caused “irremediable damage”. “This is an incredible waste of money and is inhumane,” Professor Stanley said. So where to from here? Premier Roger Cook has already said he doesn’t “necessarily” see sense in a key suggestion by witnesses for WA to join the rest of Australia and separate youth justice from corrective services. Commissioner for offender services Andrew Beck said having them together overlaid a punitive, adult prison mindset on children, and Professor Stanley agreed. On the same issue, Mike Reynolds said he was in rare agreement with Judge Quail’s predecessor Denis Reynolds and Mr Ryan’s, Neil Morgan. But cryptically, the Premier said: “WA is a unique part of Australia so we have got specific needs.” Denis Reynolds wants solitary confinement in youth detention banned, saying a self-inflicted death is an inevitable outcome of such treatment. Shadow corrective services minister Peter Collier says WA should seek external expert help, with the State’s “entire juvenile justice sector . . . infected with political interference and mistrust”. The Cook Government was pandering to voters with its tough-on-crime rhetoric, he said, even as it headed to the March election with its huge majority. “Only by engaging someone from outside of the State to conduct a comprehensive inquiry will there be any hope for meaningful change,” Mr Collier told The Sunday Times. “With the senior members of the Labor Government constantly referring to the detainees as ‘terrorists, rapists and murderers’, the staff were placed in an unenviable position. “Do they follow the edict of their Labor overlords? They compliantly pursued a punitive and ultimately regressive pathway.” Dr Pettitt had plenty of suggestions for change, adding the inquest evidence so far had been “even worse than I could have imagined”, including the admission by Ms Ginbey she had seen no active plans to close Unit 18. “The fact that the Premier says that they can’t consider this because they are still doing a business plan for a new facility is appalling,” he said. “How much less seriously could they be taking this crisis? Could they move any slower? “There needs to be a full plan that sees a range of youth facilities that separate remand and sentenced youth, facilities that keep youth on country and connected to culture. “Tweaks to WA’s broken youth justice system won’t cut it — it needs a major overhaul and fresh leadership.” Dr Pettitt also called for “consequences for those who lied and covered up a system more focused on inhumane punishment than rehabilitation”. Cleveland’s family and supporters, including suicide prevention advocate Megan Krakouer, want to see action taken and Unit 18 closed immediately. There could be repercussions for Mr Coyne, who admitted giving incorrect evidence to the Corruption and Crime Commission during private hearings in February. He told the CCC he became aware detainees covering up their in-cell cameras was an ongoing problem the day after Cleveland fatally self-harmed, but testified at the inquest he knew about it in May 2023. Dr Tomison also backpedalled on testimony he gave the royal commission, describing some of his remarks as “the most incorrect I could make”. The bombshell admissions, including Dr Tomison telling Cleveland’s family “the department and I failed you”, are believed to raise the prospects of those involved in a class action against the State over the treatment of Unit 18 detainees. Asked if Mr Coyne’s employment was tenable, a spokesman for Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said he could not comment on an ongoing inquest. It resumes for a final three days of hearings in October. Lifeline: 13 11 14