Teenage inmate blasts pepper spray guard’s face

MADISON – A teen inmate this summer stole a can of pepper spray and blasted a guard in the face with it, sickening him and other workers in the area, according to newly released records.

The incident is the latest to illuminate the troubles that have gripped Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in recent years. The prison complex north of Wausau has been under a criminal investigation for nearly three years and is the subject of multiple lawsuits.

On July 22, three inmates scaled a fence in an enclosed exercise yard and ran across the prison grounds, according to incident reports released this week under the state’s open records law.

Guards apprehended two of them. The third inmate took a large can of pepper spray from an unattended van, confronted a guard and sprayed him twice in the face. The guard used his own pepper spray on the inmate, as well.

After the inmate emptied the can of pepper spray in the guard’s face, he used it to smash out the back window of the van. Soon afterward, a supervisor hit the inmate with pepper spray and took him to the ground, according to the reports.

Other staff members were also affected by the pepper spray as it spread through the air. They wrote in their reports that they had trouble seeing and breathing. One of them threw up.

Workers say it is not uncommon for inmates to climb over internal fences and in some cases scale the roofs of dormitories. Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said prison officials are looking at ways to prevent that from happening.

The incident occurred two weeks after U.S. District Judge James Peterson issued an injunction requiring the prison to curb its use of pepper spray and solitary confinement. The order came in response to a lawsuit brought by teen inmates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and Juvenile Law Center.

Prison workers have contended the order has made inmates more disruptive and the prison so unsafe that they fear for their lives. Advocates for the inmates say any problems are the fault of the Department of Corrections for not providing enough programming for inmates and training for staff.

Separate from the lawsuit, the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation into prisoner abuse and child neglect. Officials have declined to say how long they expect the probe to take.