Attorneys to judge: a few bad teen offenders and staff shortages behind Lincoln Hills disruptions

MADISON - A small batch of inmates are causing disruptions at the state's juvenile prison complex — including one in which an inmate used pepper spray on a guard — and may need to be shipped off to treatment facilities, attorneys for the state told a federal judge.

In a competing report, attorneys for the inmates told U.S. District Judge James Peterson the problems at the facility are a result of staff shortages, inadequate training and a lack of programming for teenagers with troubled backgrounds.

Friday's filings provided the latest insight into conditions at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, which share a campus 30 miles north of Wausau.

In response to a lawsuit brought by inmates, U.S. District Judge James Peterson this summer ordered the state to curb its use of pepper spray and solitary confinement there.

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FULL COVERAGE: How the Lincoln Hills crisis unfolded

Since then, workers have contended the prison has become unsafe, and Peterson told both sides to file a report by Friday describing conditions there.

Sam Hall, an attorney for the state, told Peterson his order may have forced change too quickly at the prison complex. For some inmates, Peterson's injunction is "an apparent motivator to act out, sometimes violently," Hall wrote.

The inmates who are acting out represent a "very small percentage" of the inmates. Prison leaders are considering developing a program that would have health professionals identify juveniles who present risks and who should be sent to treatment facilities outside of Lincoln Hills, Hall wrote.

Hall cited three troubling incidents in his report.

On July 22 — 12 days after the injunction was issued — three inmates scattered across the prison grounds. One of them stole a can of pepper spray from a prison van, emptied it on staff and broke out a van window, he wrote.

"It's on and it's going to keep happening," one of the inmates said when he was apprehended.

On Aug. 3, four inmates scaled the roof of a dorm and brandished broken pipes at guards. They indicated it was part of a concerted plan to repeatedly cause disruptions at the prison and said the maximum punishment they could face under the injunction — seven days in solitary confinement — "is nothing," according to the state's report.

RELATED: Teen inmates climbed Wisconsin juvenile prison roof, waved broken pipes and threw rocks at guards

On Oct. 11, an inmate knocked out a teacher with a single punch. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department has recommended the assailant, who turned 17 shortly after the assault, be charged with battery and false imprisonment, according to records recently released under Wisconsin's open records law.

RELATED: Woman beaten by teen inmate blames Scott Walker administration, injunction for unsafe conditions

Attorneys for the inmates said some of the recent incidents were caused by inmates with serious mental health problems, including one who was hearing voices before he acted out. He was later transferred to a mental health facility.

The inmate attorneys wrote in their report that there have been four serious injuries to staff at Lincoln Hills from July to October — the same number that occurred during the same period in 2016, before the court order was issued.

The source of trouble is a lack of treatment and staffing, wrote the inmate attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and Juvenile Law Center.

"The problem is compounded, if not caused, by inadequate staffing," they wrote.

About 14% of the jobs at Lincoln Hills are vacant at the moment because of the challenges in hiring and keeping staff, Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher recently said.

The class-action lawsuit is one of several against the facility. Others have been brought by individual inmates who allege their civil rights were violated, including one girl who was severely brain damaged after she hanged herself in her cell.

RELATED: Former teen inmate, now brain damaged, sues state

Separately, the prison complex has been under a criminal investigation for nearly three years. The FBI is leading that probe into prisoner abuse and child neglect.

RELATED: Crisis at Lincoln Hills juvenile prison years in making

State Sens. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) and Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) — whose districts including the prison — have called for Peterson to lift his injunction after hearing from workers who said they fear for their lives.

But officials in Gov. Scott Walker's administration who are responsible for running the prison have not gone that far.

They did not appeal Peterson's ruling from this summer that forced them to change how they operate the facility. Their attorneys said in Friday's report that they were not seeking any changes to the injunction.