Sydney News: Teenager dies by suicide in Australian detention centre

Sydney, Aug 30 (IANS/GURPUNEET SIDHU):- A teenager died by suicide at a youth detention centre in Western Australia (WA), two days after being brought to the facility. Roger Cook, the premier of WA, on Friday, confirmed that a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy was found unresponsive by staff in a cell at the Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre in the southern suburbs of the state capital of Perth on Thursday night, Xinhua news agency reported. Paramedics were called to the facility at approximately 10 p.m. local time but were unable to revive the teenager, who had arrived at the centre two days earlier. Cook described the teenager’s death as distressing and a traumatic event. “An internal investigation is now underway, and police are preparing a report for the coroner,” he said at a press conference. “A failure has occurred, but we’ll continue to make sure we do everything we can to improve the lives of people, not only those who work at the facility but those who are at the facility,” Cook said. It comes after 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd, in October 2023, became the first person to die in WA’s youth detention system in recorded history. Dodd, who was Indigenous, was found unresponsive in his cell on October 12 after self-harming and died eight days later in hospital. An ongoing inquiry into Dodd’s death has heard that the 16-year-old made eight threats of self-harm and several requests for medical help before his death. Brad Royce, WA’s corrective services commissioner, said on Friday that the 17-year-old who died at Banksia Hill was deemed a low self-harm risk and was placed in a general unit on Thursday with people he knew. “We know he was checked 10 times by my staff, and on the 11th occasion, just before 10 p.m., he was found unresponsive,” Royce said. He said that all staff were wearing body cameras and that he was satisfied all their actions were appropriate (SYDNEY NEWS). –