Judge rejects GOP call to give Wisconsin youth prison counselors more freedom to punish inmates

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected Republican legislators’ calls to give counselors at Wisconsin’s youth prison more leeway in controlling inmates after a counselor was killed in a fight at the facility this summer. Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes Schools has operated under a federal consent decree since 2018 that prohibits punitive confinement, limits the use of mechanical restraints and prohibits pepper spray. Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy on Thursday asking him to ask U.S. District Judge James Peterson to reconsider the consent decree’s conditions. Peterson said in a letter Tuesday that he won’t do anything unless someone files a formal motion and can show the consent decree doesn’t protect the staff or inmates.