Troubled youth prison unit should be closed urgently after Indigenous teenager Cleveland Dodd’s death: coroner

<p>16-year-old’s death was caused by longstanding failures in the justice system, coroner Phil Urquhart finds</p><ul><li><p><em><strong>Warning: </strong>This article contains references to an Indigenous Australian who has died</em></p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/dec/08/australia-news-live-politics-coalition-housing-policy-liberal-labor-vic-nsw-qld-tasmania-weather-bushfires-economy-education-health-social-media-cost-of-living">Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates</a></p></li><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p>The coroner investigating the death of Indigenous teenager Cleveland Dodd has called for the youth detention unit he was held in to be closed and investigated, after finding that his death was caused by longstanding failures in the justice system.</p><p>Cleveland was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/26/500-days-of-solitary-aboriginal-teen-spent-extraordinary-period-in-isolation">found unresponsive inside a cell</a> in the trouble-plagued Unit 18, a youth wing of the Casuarina high-security adult prison, south of Perth, in the early hours of 12 October 2023.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/08/indigenous-teenager-cleveland-dodd-death-coroner">Continue reading...</a>

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