The media unit for the Corrections Department in Western Australia employs so much "spin," the truth is lost, and the entire department is "incompetent," the longest serving President of the Children's Court of Western Australia has told an inquest in Perth.

Judge Denis Reynolds, an outspoken critic of the way the justice system has treated children in WA, appeared before the inquest into the death of 16-year-old Yamatji boy Cleveland Dodd on Wednesday.

Judge Reynolds slammed former WA Premier Mark McGowan and former Corrective Services Minister Bill Johnston for their handling of youth justice.

The first child to die in custody in WA, Cleveland was found unresponsive in his cell at Unit 18 of the maximum-security Casuarina Prison last year. He died, surrounded by his family, on October 19.

Judge Reynolds said children being held at Unit 18, who were moved there from Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre after being considered violent, were routinely viewed as "inherently bad".

"At the core of the issue is a false premise," he told the court. "In my view, they are vulnerable children. They have neurodevelopmental issues and have loads of trauma."

"When you have vulnerable children like that coming into a detention centre and placed into solitary confinement, that treatment is the cause of behaviours that include the damage."

In 2022, then Minister Johnston said his priorities were "community safety first", "safety of the staff second" and "then the third element is to keep the young offenders safe".

In the same year when asked about children being unable to leave their cells, former Premier McGowan, claimed some detainees choose not to leave their cells because "they will stay up at night watching telly or playing computer games or PlayStation or what have you and sleep in the day".

Both were widely criticised by human rights groups.

"Clearly there is a political overlay to what is happening," Judge Reynolds said.

"The former Minister and Premier were to the detriment of community safety; they were pushing the demonisation of the children. They thought it would be favourably received by the public. There was no will."

He highlighted the media team at the department, arguing they played a role in attempting to convince the public that the youth inmates housed in the horrific conditions were demons rather than highly damaged children suffering from trauma, observing that "there was so much spin and misinformation, to the point where the truth was lost".

"When [the media unit] released a photo of the common area in Unit 18…[it] looked really lovely. Then they released photos of the damage and said, 'look what these children did," Justice Reynolds said.

"What they didn't show was 17 children shackled, 12 of them Aboriginal. That would've given the community a different idea. It was appalling."

Coroner Philip Urquhart previously said his preliminary observations of the evidence before the court was that Unit 18 was "unliveable, disgusting and inhumane".

The court had previously heard Cleveland made eight threats to self-harm, as well as numerous requests for medical treatment and water, in the hours before he was discovered in Unit 18.

Judge Reynolds, who was president of the children's court from 2004 until his retirement in 2018, called for Unit 18 - which is surrounded by some of the most violent offenders in the state and designed for adults - to be closed.

"It can happen immediately. It comes to will. If you want something like this to happen, it can," he said.

"What is needed is a regime change and political will to cause change. The problem is that the department is incompetent and lacking the will. It's come to the point where someone had committed suicide despite countless warnings."

Asked about the department's repeated requests to not provide the court with detention management reports, Judge Reynolds said the Department argued it was "too resource-intensive".

"I thought it should be stock-standard," he told the court.

Addressing the Dodd family, a visibly emotional Judge Reynolds concluded his evidence by arguing there needed to be "accountability and recognition by the State and immediate changes made to the law to ensure proper treatment for every child in care".

"Can I extend my sincere apologies to you, your family friends and community for the sad passing of Cleveland," he said.

"The death of a child is always unbearable and I cannot imagine how much more difficult it has been…for the death to happen in circumstances which were preventable, predictable and predicted…when Cleveland was in the care of the State."

National Indigenous Times has contacted the WA Department of Justice for comment.

The inquest continues.

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