The corrections officer who found a teen with self-inflicted harm in an adult prison’s youth wing says staff regularly watched movies on the job to stay awake.

April 8, 2024

Corrections staff watched movies while detainees were locked in their cells in the troubled youth wing of an adult prison, an inquest into the first juvenile to die in detention in Western Australia has been told.

Cleveland Dodd was found unresponsive in the early hours of October 12, 2023 after harming himself inside his cell in Unit 18 in Perth’s Casuarina Prison.

The 16-year-old made eight threats to self-harm in the hours before he was discovered by youth custodial officer Daniel Torrijos and transported to hospital, where he died eight days later.

Mr Torrijos told the coroner it was common for staff to watch movies and other programs while working the night shift.

“It was something you did. It helped you stay awake,” he said on Monday.

“Occasionally late in the night I might attempt to watch a movie.”

The veteran officer said he was never told not to watch television while working and he only did it in his downtime and didn’t do it the night Cleveland harmed himself because it was a “busy night”.

The inquest also heard Mr Torrijos had been investigated and disciplined for failing to properly carry out his duties on seven occasions about two years earlier.

Asked about the finding, Mr Torrijos said he was overworked and it was unrealistic to expect him to be able to complete the amount of tasks expected of him.

Coroner Phil Urquhart also heard Unit 18’s manager on the night Cleveland harmed himself, Kyle Mead-Hunter, had also been subject to disciplinary action in the weeks before the incident but no details were provided.

Mr Torrijos, who started giving evidence on Friday, has said Unit 18’s cells were unlivable and many had extensive unrepaired damage, including exposed wires and broken toilets and showers.

The inquest also heard Mr Torrijos had helped Cleveland write a letter to his father, who is incarcerated at Greenough Regional Prison, but it was never received and was instead provided to the inquest.

Mr Urquhart addressed Cleveland’s father, watching the inquest via a video-link, and said he would ensure the letter was passed on to him.

Mr Torrijos previously told the court about a string of failures that plagued the troubled unit the night he found Cleveland motionless in his cell.

These included him not carrying a radio when he went to check on Cleveland, which was required under Department of Justice policy and left him unable to communicate with the control room.

The unit’s main prison radio was also off, leaving inmates and staff unaware of a planned power outage at the prison, which further distressed the teen before he self-harmed.

Asked why staff didn’t know about the power cut, Mr Torrijos said: “It wasn’t uncommon and no one really wanted Unit 18 to be there.”

“I’m pretty sure there was no notification … no one rang,” he said in what appeared to be a reference to the prison’s management team.

Mr Torrijos defended the time it took him to walk to and from a manager’s office to retrieve the keys to Cleveland’s cell door after seeing he was in trouble through a window.

“I was on a mission to get the keys. It might not have looked like I was going quick but it’s as quick as I can go,” he said in reference to CCTV footage showing his movements.

“I’ve got arthritic knees … I can’t run.”