Content Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains the name of a Yamatji person who has passed away.
The National Justice Project has joined more than 100 experts, advocates and prominent Australians to urge Western Australia Premier Roger Cook to close the state’s notorious Unit 18 youth prison.
The open letter was sent to Premier Cook on Friday 16 August 2024, the final day of the first part of the inquest into the death of Cleveland Dodd, the 16-year-old Yamatji boy who died in the Unit in October last year.
The letter highlighted that the evidence revealed in the Coronial Inquest exposed massive failings in the management of youth detention. Unit 18 was never able to provide children the support they needed and the public servants who oversaw it’s opening knew it would be unable to provide basic care including observation cells, access to services, and education.
The former Director-General of Justice gave testimony that conditions in WA’s youth detention facilities were a form of ‘institutional abuse of children’ and senior public servants admitted Unit 18 was founded on ‘a series of grievous lies.’
The National Justice Project agrees the practice of keeping WA children inside a maximum-security adult prison must stop and that the cycle of abuse and irreparable harm to children in government institutions must stop.
We call on the WA Premier to act now to end the abuse of children happening on his watch and at the hands of his government, to save more young people from a fate like Cleveland’s.
The letter was coordinated by Social Reinvestment WA and can be read here.
Media Coverage
- Almost 130 experts, advocates and prominent Australians urge WA Premier to close notorious youth prison
National Indigenous Times, 16 August 2024
