After reports of abuse led Iowa to close its school for troubled girls in 2014, state officials sent teenagers to a Wisconsin facility where the mistreatment was just as shocking, according to federal lawsuits filed this week.

The suits, filed on behalf of two Iowa teens, said the girls were kept in isolation for 22 hours a day and were physically abused by staff members at Wisconsin's Copper Lake facility.

One of the girls was found unresponsive after she used a nightgown to try to commit suicide while she was serving a 17-day sentence in isolation in 2015, her lawsuit says. After she was revived, the 16-year-old was placed back in the cell and sentenced to more isolation time, the suit says. In another incident, the girl reportedly tried to hurt herself by placing her head under a low metal cot frame. A staff supervisor then stood on the cot to increase the pressure on her neck, the suit says.

The other girl had her head repeatedly slammed into the wall of an isolation cell by four staff members who had lifted her by her arms and legs and carried her into the room, her lawsuit says. The girl, then 16, also was repeatedly sprayed with mace for refusing to go into her room, her suit says. The girl reportedly was sentenced to more isolation time after she attempted to commit suicide by cutting or hanging herself.

The isolation rooms, which measure about 7 feet by 10 feet, have concrete floors and often lack toilets, the suits say. Girls allegedly were kept in them for 22 hours a day for weeks at a time. If they threatened to harm themselves, they were punished by having their blankets and regular clothing taken away, and were left “in a cold concrete room with no heat and nothing in it.”

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The lawsuits, reported Wednesday by the Wisconsin State Journal, were filed this week in federal court in Wisconsin. They say Iowa’s Department of Human Services contracted with Wisconsin officials to take troubled Iowa girls after Iowa closed its Iowa Juvenile Home at Toledo in 2014. That closure came in the wake of allegations that girls had been assaulted or locked in seclusion, sometimes for weeks or months on end.

Charles Palmer, who was director of the Iowa Department of Human Services when the girls were sent to the Wisconsin facility, is listed as a defendant in the new lawsuits. Department spokeswoman Amy McCoy said Thursday that the agency doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits. Several Wisconsin officials also are listed as defendants.

Federal and Wisconsin officials have been investigating the Copper Lake facility and a similar school for troubled boys, which are both in the north-central Wisconsin town of Irma. A federal judge recently ordered Wisconsin officials to strictly limit their use of seclusion, pepper spray and other disciplinary measures, the State Journal reported. Several Wisconsin officials have been fired or resigned amid the scandal, the newspaper said.

The advocacy group Disability Rights Iowa looked into allegations of abuse of Iowa teens at the Wisconsin facility. Nathan Kirstein, a lawyer for the group, said Thursday he felt “disgust and disappointment in our state” after learning the Iowa Department of Human Services sent troubled girls to the controversial Copper Lake center after Iowa closed its facility at Toledo.

“DHS never visited there before contracting with them,” he said.

Disability Rights Iowa is not involved in the new lawsuits, but it successfully pushed Iowa officials to make changes.

Kirstein said when he visited the facility in early 2016, four Iowa girls were being held there. He said he found evidence of mistreatment, including physical abuse and overuse of seclusion and restraints. He said the problems were strikingly similar to issues Disability Rights Iowa helped uncover at Iowa’s facility in Toledo, which led then-Gov. Terry Branstad to shutter the school in 2014.

Kirstein said he sent a report to the Iowa Department of Human Services, which agreed to cancel its contract with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and stop sending teenagers to the Copper Lake facility.

Disability Rights Iowa, which is chartered by the federal government, seeks to protect the rights of people with disabilities, including mental health issues.

The new federal lawsuits say the two young women now live in Polk County, Iowa. Their lawyer, Jack Bjornstad of Okoboji, said he couldn’t comment on how they’re faring now.

“Our big concern in this is not to re-victimize the girls,” he said. Even recounting the events for lawyers preparing their lawsuits was painful for them, he said.

The detention centers are for teens who are found to be delinquent for committing crimes as juveniles. Both of the girls who filed suit are now 18.

The lawsuits quote court officials expressing shock at what they found at the Wisconsin facilities.

“The indifference in this sordid tale is absolutely inexcusable,” a state judge wrote to Wisconsin’s governor in 2012, according to the suits. “I’ll be thinking long and hard before sending another youth to that place.”

The suits say Iowa paid Wisconsin $301 per day to hold teens at the Copper Lake facility.

Kirstein, the Disability Rights Iowa lawyer, said that kind of money could go a long way toward improving services at Iowa treatment centers, where even deeply troubled teens could be treated humanely. His group hopes Iowans don’t see news of the Wisconsin situation as a reason to reopen a state detention center for delinquent girls.