Copper Lake School and Lincoln Hills School - Photo by Gilman Halsted/WPR.
MADISON, WI (WSAU-WAOW) -Wisconsin has reached full compliance with 50 court-ordered reforms at two youth prisons that have been marred by past child abuse scandals.
The reforms have been successful at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools, according to a Thursday press release.
Gov. Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections are celebrating the milestone, which marks a crucial step toward closing the two facilities and relocating youth to treatment centers closer to home.
In 2015, law enforcement raided Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools as part of a criminal probe into claims of abuse. The raid happened after a concerning pattern of complaints over the course of several years, according to the release.
“State and federal investigators at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools ultimately found frequent and excessive use of force on kids, excessive use of pepper spray, excessive confinement, failure to intervene in youth-on-youth fights, no investigations into sexual misconduct allegations, sexual abuse of youth, and physical abuse of youth that included broken bones and feet being slammed in doors,” the release stated.
Evers said closing the facilities has been a top priority for him, even before he became governor in 2019.
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