
Wisconsin officials said Thursday they settled with three former inmates of a juvenile prison complex for nearly $5 million, bringing the state’s total expense related to problems there to about $25 million.
Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls, located near Irma, have been plagued with problems that began as early as 2012. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration is now tasked with overseeing the state’s only youth prison, which is scheduled to close in 2021.
Two former Copper Lake inmates, Laera Reed and Paige Ray-Cluney, will each receive $1.95 million for problems during their confinements in 2015 and 2016. The two girls, both from Iowa, went to Copper Lake under an interstate agreement.
Reed became suicidal while being kept in solitary confinement for more than 60 days in a cell without a toilet, the lawsuit said. During her roughly nine-month stay, guard Kyle Hoff allegedly slammed her head against a wall and, after Reed placed her head under a cot, stood on top of the frame to tighten it against her neck.
Ray-Cluney spent 148 days in solitary confinement.
John Sandy, an attorney for the two young women, said the girls were held in isolation for 23 hours a day for weeks at a time in urine-stained cells.
“They had little to no educational instruction or human interaction,” he said. “Their severe isolation caused (post-traumatic stress disorder), depression and led to numerous suicide attempts. They lost all hope. Today is, in part, a reclamation of hope.”
The women still have pending lawsuits against Iowa human services officials for sending them to the Wisconsin facility without adequate monitoring.
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