Boy dies after suicide attempt at notorious WA prison

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The 16-year-old Aboriginal boy who was found unconscious following a self-harm incident in the Unit 18 youth wing of Casuarina Prison in Perth, has died after a week on life support.

The boy is the first child to die while in the custody of WA’s youth justice system, and is believed to be Australia’s first child in custody death since 15-year-old Johnno Warramarrba took his life in Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre on February 9, 2000.

Paramedics arrived on scene soon after and rushed the boy to hospital, but he has passed away a week later. Credit: File photo/Michael O’Brien

The teenager died at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital shortly after 10pm Thursday, with family members by his bed.

He had been found unresponsive in his cell by staff in the early hours of October 12, who provided emergency first aid until paramedics arrived.

The Department of Justice released a statement on Friday morning, expressing its “deepest sympathies to the boy’s family, friends and community for their tragic loss.”

Gerry Georgatos, who runs the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project and was a PhD candidate on Australian Deaths in Custody inquiry, said experts had been warning this would be the result of Western Australia’s problems-plagued youth detention system, where some teenagers were moved from Banksia Hill Detention Centre to a wing of the adult prison where this boy took his life.

“The alarm bells have been rung, year after year, the cries for help by children incarcerated, that a death in custody of a child would eventuate to haunt the state of Western Australia,” he said last week.

“If we do not heed the horror of Unit 18, there will be loss to a suicide or unnatural death. This 16-year-old is on life support and we pray he is not Western Australia’s first child death in custody, and Australia’s first one since 15-year-old Johnno Warramarrba took his life in notorious Don Dale on February 9, 2000.”

Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia and Premier Roger Cook have admitted conditions at the adult prison are not ideal for children.

“Unit 18 houses the most challenging, complex and often dangerous juveniles,” Papalia said.

“That is the only place we have for them at the moment, we are working up a plan to vastly improve the delivery of services there. I recognise it’s not an ideal situation.

“The alternative of bringing unit 18 detainees back to Banksia Hill is that [the progress at Banksia Hill] all goes backwards.”

The death will be subject to a mandatory inquest, and the Department said they would co-operate with the Coronial process.

They said they had aided family from regional WA to spend time with the boy at the hospital, and continued to offer support.

Detainees and staff at Unit 18 and Banksia Hill Detention Centre will be provided counselling and support services during this difficult time.

Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800, for 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).

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