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href="http://solitarywatch.com/2017/02/22/at-wisconsin-juvenile-prisons-children-face-a-nightmare-of-solitary-confinement-and-abuse/">http://solitarywatch.com/2017/02/22/at-wisconsin-juvenile-prisons-children-face-a-nightmare-of-solitary-confinement-and-abuse/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">At Wisconsin Juvenile Prisons, Children
Face a Nightmare of Solitary Confinement and Abuse</h1>
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<h2 class="post-date"><font size="-1">By <a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/author/valerie-kiebala/">Valerie
Kiebala - </a>February 22, 2017</font></h2>
<p>At the Lincoln Hills School for Boys (LHS), a juvenile
correctional facility in far northern Wisconsin, two
entire buildings called the Krueger Unit and the
Roosevelt Unit exist solely for the purpose of holding
children in solitary confinement for 22 to 23 hours a
day. Each unit holds two-dozen isolation cells, which
measure seven by ten feet and contain only a metal sink,
a toilet, a mattress, and an odor of sweat and urine. In
LHS’s smaller sister facility, Copper Lake School for
Girls (CLS), one wing of the Wells Unit is reserved for
solitary confinement. The lights in these cells remains
lit 24 hours a day.</p>
<p>Children as young as 14 are sent to these units at the
discretion of the staff for disciplinary reasons,
including minor rule violations, or for “asserted
security reasons.” According to data from the Wisconsin
Department of Corrections, from 15 to 20 percent of the
approximately 165 children at LHS and CLS are in
solitary confinement at any given time, and some remain
there for as long as 30 to 60 consecutive days.</p>
<p>Even in a nation where the <a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/2017/01/05/movement-to-end-juvenile-solitary-confinement-gains-ground-but-hundreds-of-kids-remain-in-isolation/">solitary
confinement of youth</a> is still widespread,
conditions at the Wisconsin facilities are extreme. In a
<a
href="https://aclu-wi.org/sites/default/files/issue/pdf/20170123JJvLitscherComplaintefiled.pdf"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">federal class-action lawsuit</a>
filed late last month, the American Civil Liberties
Union of Wisconsin and Juvenile Law Center assert that
these conditions are also unconstitutional. They argue
that use of solitary, along with mechanical restraints
and pepper spray, violate the children’s Eighth
Amendment rights to be free from cruel and unusual
punishment, as well as their Fourteenth Amendment rights
to rehabilitation and due process.</p>
<p>Despite their names, LHS and CLS provide minimal
education and maximum disciplinary measures. For those
in solitary, class time may be cut down to less than an
hour per day, during which the students may have their
wrists cuffed to a canvas belt around their waist. Every
boy sent to solitary confinement at LHS for the first
time, and many girls at CLS, get placed “on the belt.”
In addition, the facilities often keep them handcuffed
during their one-hour breaks from solitary confinement,
sometimes even during their showers.</p>
<p><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/25/solitary-confinement-as-a-child-lincoln-hills-prison-guards"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">JJ</a>, one of the four
named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, has been diagnosed with
ADHD and placed in solitary confinement on ten separate
occasions. While in solitary, he was placed “on the
belt” for most of his time out of the cell. Another
plaintiff, C.M., spent two weeks in solitary for two
rule violations, though “neither incident involved any
violence or threat to security.” He was never provided
any written notice of charges. He too, in accordance
with the facilities’ policy, was placed “on the belt”
for several days.</p>
<p>A third plaintiff, R.N., had been on suicide watch
before he pulled a fan’s electrical cord through his
food slot and tied it around his neck. The suit claims
that before the guards filled his solitary confinement
cell with pepper spray, they yanked on the cord, as
evidenced by the marks left on R.N.’s neck.</p>
<p>In a <a
href="http://courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SydniBriggs.pdf"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">separate lawsuit</a>, filed
within a week of the first, the family of <a
href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2017/01/28/girl-gravely-injured-suicide-attempt-copper-lake-prison/97131498/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">Sydni Briggs</a> claim
deliberate indifference to the 16-year-old girl’s
well-being on the part of CLS staff. The suit states
that Briggs hit her call light to summon a guard before
slinging a homemade noose over a doorknob and around her
neck. While it is unclear how long the guards took to
reach Briggs, her suicide attempt induced a month-long
coma and permanent severe brain damage.</p>
<p>The State of Wisconsin was clearly aware of conditions
at the two facilities long before these lawsuits were
filed. Following an investigation by the state of
Wisconsin, the FBI launched its own investigation more
than a year ago. According to the <em><a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/2017/02/22/at-wisconsin-juvenile-prisons-children-face-a-nightmare-of-solitary-confinement-and-abuse/The%20sweeping%20criminal%20probe,%20now%20nearly%202%20years%20old,%20is%20examining%20allegations%20of%20prisoner%20abuse,%20child%20neglect,%20sexual%20assault,%20intimidation%20of%20witnesses%20and%20victims,%20strangulation%20and%20tampering%20with%20public%20records.%20A%20separate%20internal%20investigation%20uncovered%20four%20incidents%20where%20inmates%27%20bones%20were%20broken.">Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel</a></em>, “The sweeping criminal
probe…is examining allegations of prisoner abuse, child
neglect, sexual assault, intimidation of witnesses and
victims, strangulation and tampering with public
records.” Even a former guard told the newspaper that
the environment at the youth prisons was like “the ninth
circle of Hell.”</p>
<p>National and international organizations or agreements
that have prohibited or strictly limited one or more of
the practices employed at these facilities with regard
to children include the National Commission on
Correctional Health Care, World Health Organization,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of
the U.S. Department of Justice, American Medical
Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, UN Rules for Protection of Juveniles
Deprived of their Liberty, UN Convention Against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, and UN Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners. Both Juan E. Méndez, the former
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and former President
Barack Obama have called for a total ban on the use of
juvenile solitary confinement. The <a
href="http://www.stopsolitaryforkids.org/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">Stop Solitary for Kids </a>campaign
was recently founded to unite advocates working for an
end the practice.</p>
<p>Beyond the legal issues, treating children in this
manner has been shown not only to negate the few
rehabilitative efforts the facilities provide, but also
to exacerbate any prior mental health problems.
According to the ACLU and JLC lawsuit, “a substantial
percentage of the youth held at LHS and CLS have a
history of childhood trauma, mental illness, cognitive
impairments, or developmental disabilities.”</p>
<p>Sydni Briggs, for example, had a history of
post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety,
insomnia, depression, and suicidal behavior. Although
the facility had extensive knowledge of this, Briggs
often faced disciplinary action, including solitary
confinement, instead of proper mental health care. A CLS
guard <a
href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2017/01/28/girl-gravely-injured-suicide-attempt-copper-lake-prison/97131498/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">revealed</a> that suicide
attempts had become so frequent that “he struggled to
keep from becoming numb to them.”</p>
<p>The ACLU and JLC case presents evidence that the
defendants – the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department
of Corrections, the Administrator of Division of
Juvenile Corrections of the Wisconsin DOC, the
Superintendent of LHS and CLS, and the Director of
Security for LHS and CLS – “are aware or should be aware
of the risks of solitary confinement and restraints, but
have deliberately chosen to ignore those risks.” They
argue that the nightmarish reality of these facilities
points to neglect by the people controlling them.</p>
<p>Legally confronting these violations accomplishes the
essential action of holding responsible the officials at
fault. But if this system of disciplinary severity is to
be uprooted, another approach must fill its void.</p>
<p>Youth Justice Milwaukee (YJM), a “collective voice of
persons who were incarcerated as youth, families of
those who were or are currently incarcerated as youth,
local advocates for youth, and national experts on youth
justice,” presents an alternative paradigm. Even before
the lawsuits surfaced against the two Wisconsin
facilities, YJM presented a report with recommendations
to address the violence of the incarceration system at
LHS and CLS. This 14-page <a
href="http://www.urbanunderground.org/publications"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">report</a>, entitled <em>Safer
Communities, Stronger Families</em>, delineates a
model based in community engagement.</p>
<p>The report begins by asserting that the “responsibility
for providing juvenile programs and services should be
in the hands of the county where youth live.” Most of
the children held there at LHS and CLS have been
transported from Milwaukee, a 3.5-hour drive away.</p>
<p>The ACLU and JLC lawsuit also states that the majority
of the youth held at the two facilities are African
American, though most of the staff is white and from the
rural north of Wisconsin. As Jessica Feierman, Associate
Director of the Juvenile Law Center, pointed out in an
interview with Solitary Watch, “The treatment of young
people at CLS and LHS is troubling under any
circumstances, but it is particularly devastating when
you think of how it functions as part of this racial
disparity.” The YJM report describes the racial makeup
of Wisconsin’s juvenile correctional facilities: Only
comprising 10 percent of the state’s total youth
population, African Americans comprise 70 percent of the
youth in juvenile correction facilities.</p>
<p>In order to address these disparities, YJM first
recommends an increase in public safety through the
creation of community-based programs that address the
needs and struggles of young people, including “family,
housing, education, vocational training, employment,
emotional health, medical, substance abuse, legal,
finances, recreation, culture, and spirituality.”
According to YJM, shifting these services to a local,
community-centered system would allow for the
dissipation of the racial and ethnic disparities
currently plaguing the system. YJM suggests the
necessary funding for these services be reallocated from
the incarceration facilities, which currently spend an
estimated $100,000 on each youth.</p>
<p>Moving even deeper into the community, YJM also pushes
for meaningful engagement with families of youth in the
system. After reaching out to families in the community,
YJM found overwhelming support from families for this
recommendation. The final point of the report expounds
upon a process to ensure greater transparency,
accountability, and effectiveness in juvenile justice
services.</p>
<p>One of YJM’s principles reads, “to achieve real and
lasting change, we should not only seek to move people
in positions of power, but also to build power in our
communities.” Recognition by federal courts of the
unconstitutional inhumanities committed at Lincoln Hills
School and Copper Lake School could be a first step
toward opening up space for a sustainable method of
public safety, mental health, and racial equality built
at the heart of the community.</p>
<p>It is clear, however, that change will not come quickly
or easily, under the leadership of Republican Governor
Scott Walker. Earlier this month, Walker released his
budget proposal, which neglected to address the abuses
and failures of the juvenile prisons. Instead, according
to a report by the <a
href="http://www.startribune.com/critics-pan-walker-s-budget-on-youth-prison/413493753/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">Associated Press</a>, the
budget allocates “$2 million to create eight new guard
positions, three new mental health specialist positions
for the prison’s female wing and convert nine contract
nursing positions to state positions.” The addition of
these new positions still leaves the facilities 50
guards short of the guard-to-inmate ratio required by
the Prison Rape Elimination Act.</p>
<p>Although the Department of Corrections requested $3.7
million for “serious juvenile offender care and
community supervision,” Walker not only rejected this
request, but failed to provide any acknowledgement of or
funding for the egregious conditions at LHS and CLS. In
fact, Walker’s 2011 closure of two other youth prisons
in the state, done to save money, are said to have
contributed to the overcrowded and hellish conditions at
LHS and CLS.</p>
<p>Even if its requests for funding were met, it is clear
that the Wisconsin DOC has no intention of eliminating
solitary confinement for the children in its charge,
unless it is forced to do so by litigation or
legislation. At a hearing held this week by the
Wisconsin state Assembly’s Corrections Committee, DOC
Secretary Jon Litscher conceded that while there may be
too many children in solitary, the practice is needed
“to bolster safety and security,” the <a
href="http://www.startribune.com/prisons-chief-tells-lawmaker-youth-facility-is-safe/414366793/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">AP reports</a>. “They are
there for a reason,” Litscher told the committee.</p>
<p>The JLC’s Jessica Feierman vehemently disagrees. “There
is an increasing recognition that solitary confinement
is inappropriate for juveniles under any circumstances,”
she told Solitary Watch, citing President Obama’s ban on
juvenile solitary in federal facilities and bans in a
growing number of states. The solitary confinement of
children, she said, is not a legitimate correctional
practice, but a “human rights violation.”</p>
<p>On a <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/Lincoln-Hills-School-Investigation-654997074640719/"
rel="external nofollow" title="" class="ext-link"
data-wpel-target="_blank">Facebook page</a> for
survivors of the abuse at Lincoln Hills School and
Copper Lake School and their families, some expressed
hope that they would finally witness some change at the
facilities. Some were less optimistic. One girl
described the ordeal she and others went through at CLS,
and concluded: “Who cares? Nobody… nobody but me, their
families, and people with a heart.”</p>
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