“The alternative of bringing unit 18 detainees back to Banksia Hill is that [the progress at Banksia Hill] all goes backwards.”

The attempted suicide comes after repeated warnings from senior people within the youth justice system that Banksia Hill was failing vulnerable children.

WA’s Inspector of Custodial Services, Eamon Ryan, in November, said there needed to be a fundamental rethink of how the state approaches juvenile justice, which is often criticised as being too punitive.

“I’m very concerned that the most horrendous thing possible could happen, and that would be a death in custody,” he said at the time.

“I don’t think anybody would say now that if you’re starting from scratch that you would build one facility to house young people from 10 to 18, from all across the state, whether they be on remand, under arrest or sentenced.”

Former Children’s Court president Denis Reynolds said the juvenile justice regime in WA inflicted inhumane, and unlawful acts upon children.

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“It’s only been a matter of good luck that we haven’t had a suicide,” he told Radio 6PR in November last year.

“I think we do need a royal commission because I think the truth has been lost here ... the department’s very secretive, not much information gets out.”

Figures released by the Department of Justice last month revealed juveniles at Unit 18 were being confined to their cells for 20 hours a day.

It came after a WA Supreme Court judge in July ruled that subjecting children to prolonged isolation in cells amounted to solitary confinement, was illegal and conflicted with the basic notion of treating young people humanely.

The court found the Department of Justice unlawfully locked three young people in their cells at Banksia Hill Detention Centre, and at Unit 18, for prolonged periods over 167 days.

Social justice campaigner Gerry Georgatos said advocates had been sounding the alarm over the rise in self-harm incidents in juvenile detention for years.

“If we don’t start making wide-ranging, sweeping social reforms we are going to lose a lot more lives here,” he said.

WA Greens MP Brad Pettitt said Thursday’s incident was not an isolated one.

“In May there were three attempts at Unit 18 and 2 at Banksia Hill. Since June, there has been a further seven attempts at Banksia Hill,” he said.

“Incidents like this will continue to happen when you are locking kids in their cells for more than 20 hours of solitary confinement per day and detaining them in an adult, maximum security prison. This is not a safe environment for kids and it has to stop.”

Premier Roger Cook conceded “no one was happy” with the state of the juvenile system, but that plans were being put in place to reform it.

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“It’s a necessary evil at the moment ... while reconfiguring services and the model of care … it’s not a good situation, it’s a difficult situation,” he said.

“[The suicide attempt] is an incredibly regrettable situation, it’s deeply distressing and deeply saddening, and the actual events continue to unfold so we have limited information to provide to you at this early point in time.”

More to come.

Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800, for 24/7 crisis support run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, contact 13YARN (13 92 76).