An inquest has been told by the prison officer who discovered an Indigenous teenager who had injured himself while incarcerated that his death was an avoidable tragedy.
Cleveland Dodd was discovered unconscious in his cell in Unit 18 of Perth’s Casuarina Prison during the early hours of October 12, 2017.
The 16-year-old was disturbed and had made eight threats to hurt himself in the few hours before to being found by Daniel Torrijos, the minor detention officer. He was taken to the hospital and passed away eight days later.
Cleveland was more upset than normal the night of the confrontation that resulted in his death, Torrijos told a Perth coroner on Monday.
“Cleveland was very volatile and would act out and do crazy things but I never felt he was that down and out or depressed,” he stated. “He was angry, more angry than usual … he looked stressed and angry.”
The detainees held a high regard for the veteran cop, who called Cleveland’s passing a tragedy. “Obviously it could have been avoided, it’s been a build-up of a few things that happened over the years, it didn’t happen overnight and I just don’t want to see anything like that happen again,” he stated.
Youth correctional officer Nina Priestly said that Cleveland’s passing had “a huge impact on me” and that she had a “soft spot” for him. She stated, “He was a funny kid and we enjoyed having a chat and making jokes,” in a statement that Counsel Assisting the Coroner Sarah Tyler read out to the court.
Priestly identified as an Aboriginal woman who entered the department with the intention of “helping my people”. “I desired to change things. Despite their situation, I wanted to be compassionate toward the captives,” she remarked. “His death is the exact opposite of why I joined.”
Coroner Phil Urquhart was informed that Unit 18 inmates frequently made threats to hurt themselves, and it was frequently challenging to assess whether or not these threats were real.
“It’s rolled like that for three or four years, a lot of self-harm attempts,” Torrijos stated. “It’s spiralled out of control … it’s something that’s like an epidemic, plague proportion.”
The court heard that Cleveland’s threats to kill himself on October 12 began after night shift employees turned down his five requests for water because day shift workers informed them he had already received six glasses.
He was going to have to wait until dawn before being given any more, having spent the whole of the day in his cell with no running water. According to UN regulations, “every prisoner shall have access to drinking water whenever he or she needs it.”
According to Torrijos, he would have given Cleveland water and unlocked his cell door if he had been given permission, but he was told not to.
Cleveland received only three hours of schooling in four weeks and spent at least 22 hours a day in his cell on 75 of the 86 days leading up to October 12.
At the inquest, it was revealed that Torrijos had been the subject of an investigation and reprimand approximately two years prior for having reported that he had performed cell checks seven times in error.
When questioned about the results, Torrijos claimed he was overburdened and that it was impractical to expect him to finish all of the responsibilities that had been given to him.
