Mother says Western Australia Corrective Services Minister lied to her
A warning this story contains content that some viewers may find distressing and includes the image of an Indigenous person who has died. The mother of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd has accused Western Australia's Corrective Services minister of lying to her, over the events leading up to her son being found unresponsive in his prison cell. The teenager died last month after an attempted suicide in the controversial unit 18 prison which houses the state's most troubled teens.
Transcript
00:00 Nadine Dodd is grieving the loss of her son. In the days after his death, she met the Corrective
00:08 Services Minister, but now feels misled.
00:11 They did lie to her face. They did. He sat and he looked at us and he told a big lie
00:17 to her face.
00:18 Her son Cleveland died a week after attempting to take his own life in his cell at WA's controversial
00:25 Unit 18 inside Casuarina Prison.
00:28 There's no words that I can say and it's just painful that I got to hear that my son
00:33 been through all that and there's nobody to help him and support him.
00:42 An ABC investigation has revealed a litany of errors which failed to prevent Cleveland's
00:47 attempted suicide. In the early hours of October 12, the 16-year-old twice told officers he
00:55 was going to hang himself. The second time, he also told them how he was going to do it.
01:02 Nine minutes later, he was found by an officer hanging in his cell.
01:08 Later that day, the Minister said it was only a matter of minutes from when Cleveland contacted
01:12 officers to when he was found unconscious. In eight subsequent media appearances, he
01:18 hasn't corrected the record. He says his initial response was based on preliminary advice and
01:24 isn't disputing the ABC's reporting on what occurred that night.
01:28 The internal inquiry into what happened has not yet been complete. That inquiry is still
01:32 underway. It's still underway. It's not complete.
01:36 All up, there are three ongoing investigations into Cleveland's death. He's the first juvenile
01:42 to die in custody in WA.
01:45 Unit 18 is a disgusting, dark, cold place that no kid should be in.
01:51 She's hoping her son's death will lead to change.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]