2 weeks Ago By Aaron Bunch
An Indigenous teenager has died in a troubled Western Australian youth detention centre. / (min cost $ 0 ) or signup to continue reading Premier Roger Cook said custodial staff found the 17-year-old boy in his cell at the Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre about 10pm on Thursday. "This is a horrible, horrible event," he told reporters on Friday.
"Clearly, a failure has taken place because someone has lost their life and we will now undertake the very important task of understanding the circumstances that preceded his death." Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said the teenager was taken into custody at the facility on Tuesday "He came in intoxicated (with drugs and alcohol) ..
. he went into our intensive supervision unit," he said. "In that unit, we have full monitoring and we keep an eye on young people.
" Mr Royce said the boy was provided with health care and clinical support. "It was around his health and not around any mental health or self-harm issues," he said. He said the teen spent most of Thursday afternoon outside his cell before returning to it in the evening, and that he was checked by staff ten times through the night.
"On the 11th occasion, just prior to 10pm, he was found unresponsive," Mr Royce said. "Staff then breached the cell." A nurse and youth custodial officers performed CPR before paramedics arrived.
"Sadly, we couldn't revive the young man and for everyone at the scene, they did their very, very best, but on this occasion, we weren't able to revive him," Mr Royce said. "I've reviewed the footage and I'm satisfied that their actions around what they're doing and the way they called for support were appropriate." Mr Cook said Banksia Hill was a "very complex and challenging environment" and his government was providing the resources and staffing needed to ensure the safety of detainees.
"The system's not good enough. We need to continue to improve it but what I've seen is significant improvement over the time that I've been Premier," he said. Mr Royce acknowledged the difficulty of the detention environment at Banksia Hill, saying significant reforms were underway.
"What we need to spend more time on and will take generational change is the young people themselves, because when they come to me I have very short periods with them, and they come with such trauma and such history, that the challenge is significant," he said. "So there's a lot of work to do, not just by corrective services by everyone." The boy's death is the second in WA youth detention in recorded history.
The fatality follows the death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd in October last year. Cleveland died after self-harming in his cell at Unit 18, a Banksia Hill annexe site inside the adult correctional facility Casuarina Prison. His death is the subject of an ongoing coronial inquest that has heard evidence about a slew of systemic failures that preceded the incident.
An internal investigation is underway into the latest death and police are preparing a report for the coroner. Banksia Hill has been the site of numerous riots in recent years, including an incident in May last year that lasted more than 12 hours and involved 47 detainees, with estimates the damage bill would be about $30 million. Amnesty International said Banksia Hill had previously drawn condemnation from the United Nations.
"Amnesty International is devastated to learn of the death of another Aboriginal teenager in the WA youth detention system," a spokeswoman said. "We stand in solidarity and in mourning with the boy's family, community and the teenagers currently detained in Banksia Hill." The human rights organisation said it had repeatedly called for the closure of the facility because conditions in it pose a "serious and unacceptable risk to the safety of detained children".
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