WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story contains an image of a person who is deceased.
A former justice department boss says youth detainees under his watch were subject to abuse.
The revelation came during an inquest into the first West Australian custodial juvenile death.
The 16-year-old was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died a week later, causing outrage and grief in the community.
Former Department of Justice director general Adam Tomison broke down in the witness box at the Perth inquest as he discussed his time in the top job.
“I was personally defensive because having spent 30 years in welfare I was now the guy hurting kids and it was extremely hard to deal with,” he said crying on Thursday.
“I wasn’t expecting to break down.
“I wanted to do a good job… but we were failing.”
The court has been told some detainees were held in solitary confinement at Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre for up to 23 hours a day.
Dr Tomison agreed it was cruel punishment and inhumane treatment.
He also accepted it was institutional abuse of children that started in 2021.
“The department never used the term solitary confinement, but I accept that long confinements, they do the same thing,” he said.
Cleveland fatally self-harmed at Unit 18 in Casuarina Prison.
It was established in July 2022 in response to the deteriorating situation at Banksia Hill.
The inquest has previously been told many detainees transferred to the unit were also locked in their cells for prolonged periods.
Cleveland made eight threats to self-harm and numerous requests for medical treatment and drinking water in the hours before he was discovered in his cell.
He had also covered a CCTV camera in his cell with tissue paper, blocking the view of correctional staff monitoring him from a control room, but it wasn’t uncovered until they were fighting to save his life.
Cleveland was found at 1.49am and a code-red alert issued two minutes later as staff tried to revive him.
Paramedics arrived at 2.06am but did not get access to Cleveland, who was found to be in cardiac arrest, for nine minutes.
The teen was partially revived and taken to hospital but suffered a brain injury due to a lack of oxygen.
He died, surrounded by his family, on October 19.
For 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).
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