Despite repeated warnings and multiple opportunities to intervene, prison authorities failed to prevent 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd's death and wasted critical minutes, the ABC can reveal. WARNING: This story discusses incidents of self-harm.
Cleveland Dodd threatened to kill himself in his cell. Almost 15 minutes later, he was found unresponsive.
Until now, there's been no clear picture of what went on in Unit 18 in the early hours of October 12, 2023. For all but a brief few seconds after midnight, surveillance in cell 15, which had become his home for around 22 hours a day since July, was completely concealed from on-duty officers.Addressing the media just hours after Cleveland was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia said it was only a "matter of minutes" from when the teen contacted officers to when he was found unconscious.
And to open Cleveland's cell, the officer had to return to the control centre to retrieve keys held by the duty manager.It's understood that the failure to provide night staff with radios led to a delay of around one minute in the officer who initially discovered Cleveland getting access to his cell.As this was all playing out, the detainee in the cell next to Cleveland used his intercom to call the central officer to raise the alarm.
A report to fix it was lodged in late September. The ABC has seen a document that shows the cell shouldn't have been occupied by any detainee until it was fixed.A contractor assigned to repair the vent had tried to organise its replacement several times. They even showed up to replace it the day before Cleveland used it to end his own life.The sequence of events that plotted out Cleveland Dodd's last conscious minutes of life is bleak.
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