Protestors have rallied outside state parliament to demand the closure of the controversial youth detention wing inside Casuarina Prison, Unit 18 and reform of the youth justice system.

This comes after the deaths of two teenagers in the space of a year inside WA’s troubled youth detention centres.

Last October, 16 year old Cleveland Dodd took his life while detained in Unit 18 while the latest death happened in Banksia Hill Detention Centre.

It involved a 17 year old who’d only recently been released from Unit 18.

It’s claimed both teenagers were kept in prolonged solitary confinement in Unit 18.

The protest featured notable speakers including Telethon Institute founder Professor Fiona Stanley, mental health researcher Professor Pat Dudgeon as well as National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project representatives Gerry Georgatos and Megan Krakouer and around 200 attended.

Professor Stanley believes the youth detention crisis is caused by ignoring the issues faced by teenagers and instead trying to discipline them with punitive punishments.

“The government should take steps to ensure better mental health of the teenagers and build a system for them to be safe rather than investing in better prisons,” says Professor Stanley.

Noongar elder Morrison does not think the government is going to make the youth detention crisis a priority because a state election is is nearing.

In November last year the Cook Labor government announced it would close Unit 18 and replace it with a new purpose-built youth detention facility.

“A replacement needs to be something that’s culturally fitting where young people are going to learn their truth and understand and not in a regime that’s proved to be brutal,” says Mr Morrison.

 “I mean two deaths, that just can’t go on so there has got to be a good investigation how they’re treating our kids in WA,” he says.

Curtin University Professor Stuart Kinner believes the WA government and public does not invest nearly enough in the health and wellbeing of young people who move through the justice system.

“It is a criminal justice system ultimately and there’s a need to respond to offending behaviours in young people but the evidence is crystal clear that responding to those behaviours in a highly punitive way doesn’t help anyone,” says Professor Kinner.

The Minister for Corrective Services Paul Papalia did not respond to a request to comment on this matter.