MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Latest on court hearing over Wisconsin youth prisons (all times local):
5:35 p.m.
A federal judge says that Wisconsin’s juvenile prison for boys is a “troubled institution” that overuses segregation, pepper spray and shackles on inmates.
But U.S. District Judge James Peterson said Thursday he doesn’t know if the answer is to immediately bar those practices like the American Civil Liberties Union and Juvenile Law Center is asking. Peterson says he wants to maintain safety at the prisons and he doesn’t want to overreach with whatever he orders on Friday.
Peterson made the comments to attorneys following the end of a daylong hearing on the issues.
He says he hopes that both sides could agree to a plan for moving forward. But he also says he has “concerns that the problems are so severe and the harm to the residents of Lincoln Hills is so acute” that the state should be allowed to refine its use of the tactics on its own.
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4:30 p.m.
The security director at Wisconsin’s juvenile prisons says he wants to reduce the amount of time that youth inmates are put into solitary confinement.
But Brian Gustke testified in federal court Thursday that there are impediments to doing that. He says those include high turnover and vacancies in prison staff that leads to forced overtime, not knowing schedules and “confusion on everyone’s part, staff as well as the youth.”
Gustke defends the tactics used by guards as a way to maintain the safety and security both of staff and inmates, while admitting that the policies that lead to someone being put into solitary confinement could be improved.
He says as of Wednesday, 20 of the 173 inmates at the Lincoln Hills boys prison were in segregated units.
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1:30 p.m.
Videos taken inside Wisconsin’s youth prisons showing young inmates being pepper sprayed by guards have been shown in federal court during a hearing on whether the practice is cruel and unusual punishment.
One video shown Thursday shows a young female inmate who refused to go into her room repeatedly pepper sprayed by a guard and then taken to the ground by two others. A second video shows a boy inmate being pepper sprayed in his cell after he refused to take his arms out of a slot in his door.
Both were offered as evidence by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Juvenile Law Center in a lawsuit they brought challenging the use of pepper spray and other disciplinary tactics at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake prisons.
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11:50 a.m.
An expert witness says juveniles do not need to be kept in solitary confinement, pepper sprayed or shackled at Wisconsin’s youth prisons to maintain safety.
Vincent Schiraldi testified Thursday in a federal court hearing over whether solitary confinement and other disciplinary tactics used by the state Department of Corrections are constitutional. He is the former director of juvenile corrections in Washington, D.C. and is now a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School.
He says 90 percent of prisons in the country don’t use pepper spray. But he says some juveniles in Wisconsin have been sprayed more than a dozen times a piece.
Corrections officials defend the practices, saying they’re needed to maintain order and security at the prisons.
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11:20 a.m.
An expert witness says juveniles do not need to be kept in solitary confinement at Wisconsin’s youth prisons to maintain safety.
Vincent Schiraldi testified Thursday in a federal court hearing over whether solitary confinement and other disciplinary tactics used by the state Department of Corrections are constitutional. He is the former director of juvenile corrections in Washington, D.C. and is now a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School.
He says some juveniles at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake prisons spend seven or more days in a row in isolation and sometimes are not released from their cells at all during a 24-hour period.
Corrections officials defend the practice, saying it’s needed to maintain order and security at the prisons.
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10 a.m.
A federal judge says it appears there is a “serious problem and an ongoing use” of pepper spray to restrain juvenile inmates at Wisconsin’s youth prisons.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson during a Thursday hearing voiced numerous concerns with the state’s use of pepper spray, solitary confinement and shackling of young inmates at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake prisons. Civil rights groups are seeking a temporary restraining order to block the use of the disciplinary tactics while a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality is ongoing.
Department of Corrections attorney Sam Hall says the use of pepper spray has been going down all year. He says in June it was only used four times.
But Peterson says it appears the only reason its use dropped was because of the lawsuit.
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9:20 a.m.
A federal judge says he will not close his courtroom when two videos showing juvenile inmates being pepper-sprayed are presented as evidence at a hearing over the practice.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson said Thursday he has “very significant concerns” about a request by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Juvenile Law Center to close the courtroom when the videos are shown. They are suing the state Department of Corrections, seeking an end to the use of pepper spraying and solitary confinement at the troubled youth prisons in Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake.
A group of media outlets, including The Associated Press, has asked that the hearing be open.
Peterson says he will allow viewing of the videos as long as media outlets sign a non-disclosure agreement to not identify the juveniles being pepper sprayed.
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6:25 a.m.
A federal judge is set to hear evidence in a case seeking to halt the use of solitary confinement, pepper spray and the shackling of inmates at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prisons.
The hearing Thursday before U.S. District Judge James Peterson comes in a lawsuit filed against the state Department of Corrections by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Juvenile Law Center. They are asking the judge to temporarily ban the disciplinary tactics at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake prisons while its lawsuit challenging them as unconstitutional proceeds.
Attorneys asked the judge to close the hearing when videos are shown that reveal the identities of young inmates as they are pepper sprayed. A coalition of media outlets and groups was objecting to closing the hearing to show the videos.
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