This article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, and mentions of suicide, self-harm and abuse.

A 16-year-old Indigenous boy has died in a Perth hospital one week after being found unresponsive inside a Maximum Security Prison.

Last Thursday, Cleveland Dodd was found in the early hours by staff in his cell in a youth detention unit in Western Australia’s Casuarina Prison, which is currently holding more than a dozen youth detainees.

In a statement, the Western Australian Department of Justice said Dodd died at the Sir Charles Gairdner hospital shortly after 10pm on Thursday, surrounded by family.

There will be a mandatory inquest to investigate the circumstances that led up to Dodd’s death.

In a statement released by their lawyers, Dodd’s family called on immediate action and answers from the government.

“Our family is overwhelmed with grief as we come to terms with the unthinkable – the loss of our most beloved boy, who did not belong in that horrible place known as Unit 18,” the family said.

“Our boy should have had been at home with his family who he loved and who loved him dearly. Our boy deserved a future.”

The state’s only juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill, has been heavily criticised for its conditions, including the deteriorating mental health of detainees, ongoing reports of self-harm, suicide attempts, and a series of human rights concerns.

In July last year, 17 children were transferred from Banksia Hill to a youth wing of Casuarina Maximum Security men’s prison, amid “escalating” disruptions and tensions between staff and detainees.

In August, the WA government revealed there had been three suicide attempts and 13 incidents of “minor self-harm” by children transferred to the adult prison since mid-July.

Advocates have called on the government to reverse the decision to move the boys to Casuarina. Project director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, Megan Krakouer, told Guardian Australia last year the figures needed to prompt urgent action.

“The number of kids harming themselves at this level is truly harrowing, it’s disturbing, it’s catastrophic and it’s a sign the system is failing,” Krakouer said.

Dodd’s death comes as the government faces a class-action over its alleged mistreatment of youth offenders, with advocates and lawyers repeatedly flagging prolonged lockdowns, solitary confinement and children in distress self-harming and attempting suicide.

In July, the Supreme Court ruled that the WA government repeatedly broke the law by holding three young detainees in prolonged lockdowns at Banksia Hill and Unit 18, the youth detention wing of Casuarina men’s prison, for a total of 167 days between September and December 2022.

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