Opposition calls for Unit 18 to be shut down
The Premier says a 16-year-old boy who took his own life in juvenile detention earlier this month was 'let down' by the Government and Department of Justice.
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00:00 The Premier acknowledges the system failed 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd.
00:06 We've let that young detainee down and as a result of that we need to continue to learn and we need to improve.
00:13 The teenager self-harmed while on remand in Unit 18, a separate part of Kazarina Men's Prison which houses youth detainees the Government says are too difficult for Bankshire Hill Juvenile Detention Centre.
00:25 It's just not good enough, the situation we have at the moment. We're hamstrung by infrastructure, we're hamstrung by availability of staff.
00:34 Roger Cook says no one wants Unit 18 but he maintains it's a necessity.
00:39 The facility is managed by the Director General of Justice Adam Thomason, Corrective Services Commissioner Mike Reynolds and the Deputy Commissioner Women and Young People Christine Ginby.
00:49 Do you have confidence in the leadership of the department?
00:52 We're continuing to investigate how we can better work in that space. Unit 18 is not what we want, it's not where we want.
01:01 The opposition is blaming the former Premier saying he should never have opened Unit 18 and is calling on Roger Cook to shut it down.
01:09 Unit 18 should never have been open, should never have been open and it must be closed immediately or more lives will be lost.
01:17 So we can fix this crisis by obviously starting off with closing down Unit 18.
01:22 Late today grieving family members met Corrective Services Minister Paul Papalia to discuss their concerns.
01:28 concerns.
01:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]