Report: Wisconsin juvenile prison still faces safety issues
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 4 months AGO
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The latest court-ordered report on Wisconsin's juvenile prison found that many staff and inmates still fear for their safety, even though efforts have been made to improve conditions.
Monitor Teresa Abreu says in her report that the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prison in northern Wisconsin have completely eliminated the use of pepper spray and implemented a new electronic system to keep better track of inmates and staff, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Friday.
But the prison also has experienced several setbacks in its efforts to comply with a court order imposed to improve conditions at the facility, the report states. In some cases, prison staff lapsed back into the use of mechanical restraints and confinement for inmates who didn’t pose an immediate risk, it says.
The prison was supposed to close in 2021 but is unlikely to meet that deadline.
A survey from October found that 79% of staff who responded reported that they feared for their safety and 83% said they believed that the facility was unsafe or very dangerous, according to the report. Forty-four percent of inmates who responded said they feared for their safety and 48% said they had been beaten up or threatened with being beaten up in the prior six months.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Anna Neal said the agency is confident that it has built a foundation on which conditions can be improved.
“The Department of Corrections is pleased with the continued progress at Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake Schools,” Neal said. “We remain committed to promoting a high level of care and treatment to all youth while they are at Lincoln Hills. While emphasizing that progress forward is important, we also recognize there is still more work to do."
Abreu was appointed by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin in connection with a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2017 on behalf of several youth inmates that challenged the use of solitary confinement and pepper spray.
The lawsuit accused prison officials of violating the youths’ constitutional rights to live free from cruel and unusual punishment by using pepper spray on inmates and keeping them locked in isolation, sometimes for months, to manage their behavior.
In a settlement reached in 2018, the DOC agreed to end the use of pepper spray within a year and to prohibit the use of solitary confinement for youths who don’t pose a risk of causing imminent physical harm to others.
In a statement, the ACLU commended the progress that has been made at the prison, especially the elimination of the use of pepper spray, but it criticized the lack of educators, programming, adequate mental health resources and a reliance on administrative confinement. The organization emphasized the need to close the youth prison, which lawmakers voted to do in 2018.
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