State Juvenile Prisons Finally Complete Court-Ordered Reforms

Lincoln Hills School and Copper Lake School. Photo from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

Nine years after a class-action lawsuit was filed, the state of Wisconsin’s juvenile prisons have been found in compliance with a federal court order.

The ACLU of Wisconsin, Juvenile Law Center and Quarles & Brady LLP sued the state of Wisconsin in 2017 over allegations of abuse and excessive force at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls. To settle the suit the state agreed to a court-ordered consent decree and monitoring in 2018. Two consecutive monitor reports have now shown “substantial compliance” with the terms of the decree.

Gov. Tony Evers‘ administration is asking the court to lift the consent decree, an important step for the state’s plan to eventually close the two juvenile prisons.

“This has been a goal a decade in the making, and it’s tremendous to be able to celebrate the completion of reforms at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake schools today,” Evers said in a statement Wednesday. “This is a win for our state, a win for youth in our care, and a win for those who dedicate their time and energy to supporting the needed advancement of our justice system.”

The facilities were plagued by scandals and allegations of abuse and misconduct for years before the lawsuit was filed, in what became a controversial issue for former governor Scott Walker. The state Department of Justice opened an investigation of the facilities, which was later turned over to the FBI. In 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced it had not found sufficient evidence to charge staff members.

The investigations did find evidence of excessive force, including frequent use of pepper spray, and overuse of solitary confinement and restraints. Facility staff were also failing to stop fights between the youth occupants, or to properly investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

The court appointed monitor, Teresa Abreu, said the announcement “reflects years of deliberate and meaningful reform.” Facility staff are no longer allowed to use pepper spray on the juvenile occupants, solitary confinement can no longer be used as punishment and restraints and confinement have been reduced. Since the lawsuit was filed, limitations on these practices have also been codified in the Wisconsin Administrative Code.

“When we started this lawsuit in 2017, the use of pepper spray on children, solitary confinement, shackling, and strip searches were rampant at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. Today, those practices have been eliminated or significantly restricted at the facilities, and the reforms codified into binding regulations,” said Tim Muth, ACLU of Wisconsin senior staff attorney.

Since 2018, beginning under Walker, the state has pursued closure of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake. Evers, who is not running for re-election, said the state needs to prove the reforms “are here to stay” and continue development of “new state-of-the-art facilities” to replace the juvenile prisons.

The state will open the new Southeast Regional Care Center in fall this year. It is a Type 1 facility that will house juvenile offendors convicted of serious criminal offenses. Milwaukee County is also finishing development of a new Secure Regional Care Center for Children and Youth (SRCCCY) at the Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Center.

The SRCCCY facility will allow Milwaukee County Circuit Court judges to sentence fewer children to long sentences of confinement in a state prison and instead order them to the county facility. The 32-bed facility will expand an existing program that couples shorter periods of confinement with therapy and education, followed by supervised or monitored release back to their community. The program has been consistently full for years.

The state plans to eventually close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake and convert them to adult correctional facilities. But it has to wait for more Type 1 facilities to be developed, according to a statement from Evers’ office.

The ACLU filed a motion Wednesday alongside the Evers administration asking the court to lift the consent decree. Attorneys and the court appointed monitor urged the state to continue efforts to close the prisons and invest in alternatives to incarceration. The monitor wrote that the state should not let the new facilities lead to increased incarceration of youth.

“The facilities today are a far cry from where we started, and we are happy to see the significant headway made over the years,” said Kate Burdick, a senior attorney with the Juvenile Law Center. “Yet we know that no child should grow up in a prison — even an improved one. Across Wisconsin, the focus should be on building up alternatives to incarceration that support young people and help them thrive at home and in their own communities.”