The ACLU of Wisconsin is asking for an end to the use of solitary confinement at the state’s Lincoln Hills School for Boys and the Copper Lake School for Girls. The ACLU has filed an amended complaint to a lawsuit originally filed in January, with additional children incarcerated at the youth prison as plaintiffs.
“It’s really a humiliating and degrading existence, and that’s why we’re seeking to put and end to it,” said Larry Dupuis, Legal Director of the ACLU of Wisconsin.
Dupuis said use of solitary is also unnecessary and counterproductive — as is the use of pepper spray — which the complaint also seeks to halt. “If you’ve ever been pepper sprayed you know it’s extremely painful. It burns the skin and the eyes.”
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According to the ACLU, 15 to 20 percent of the youth inmates are in solitary confinement at any given time, 22 or 23 hours a day.