A federal judge tells state juvenile prison officials to curb their use of pepper spray, restraints, and solitary confinement, saying that Unabomber Ted Kaczynski has "less restrictive confinement than the youth at Lincoln Hills."
Judge James Peterson of Madison gave the state Corrections Department and the A-C-L-U two weeks to work together on a plan to change policies at the Lincoln Hills boys institution and the Copper Lake girls' school at Irma. The order is part of a preliminary injunction issued Friday in a lawsuit alleging undue abuses against teens at the two juvenile institutions.
The judge said he wants a quick resolution of the matter, because his final ruling would most likely agree that conditions at the two facilities violate the 14th Amendment guarantee of due process.
State officials say they're working on curbing the abuses, but in Peterson's words, "It's not enough to have good intentions ... There really is zero effort going on" to reduce the lengths of teens' solitary confinements.
