Lawsuit cites solitary confinement

ACLU files records on youth prisons

MADISON - Nearly 30 juvenile inmates were placed in solitary confinement on average each day last month in Wisconsin’s teen prison, according to records filed Friday in federal court as part of a civil rights lawsuit.

That represents more than 16% of the population at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau.

The filings also show pepper spray was used at the facilities more than 300 times from January 2016 through April 2017 — or more than 19 times per month on average.

Friday’s filings also included photos showing the equipment the prison uses to shackle teen inmates to desks.

The apparatus appears to leave them with little room to maneuver to write essays or perform other school work.

Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook declined comment because the litigation is ongoing.

The documents were submitted to the federal court in Madison as part of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of inmates by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.

The group is seeking to curb the use of pepper spray and solitary confinement at the prison complex.

The state responded to the ACLU claims on May 30 by acknowledging that since January 2016 Lincoln Hills staff have used pepper spray on youths in mechanical restraints, and that since January 2016 some youths at Lincoln Hills have spent more than 180 days total in solitary confinement.

Other documents filed by the ACLU showed the case files for a Lincoln Hills inmate who had treatment interrupted because he was repeatedly moved into restricted units and security placements for poor behavior.

Separately, Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have been the subject of a criminal investigation into prisoner abuse and child neglect for more than 21⁄2 years.

Prosecutors have not said whether they expect to charge anyone or how much longer their probe will take.

Two other lawsuits have been filed against the state over the prison complex — one by a former inmate who was severely brain damaged after she attempted suicide there and one by a former inmate who says he was slammed to the ground by a guard, sprayed with pepper spray and confined to a cell that reeked of urine and feces.