Recent inmate suicide attempt underscores ongoing challenges at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, records show
A tactical team restrained a young woman incarcerated at a troubled Northwoods prison after she tried to cut herself with a plastic spoon, threw urine at prison staff and attempted to hang herself twice during the encounter, records show.
The incident underscores the ongoing challenges at Copper Lake School for Girls and its companion facility, Lincoln Hills School for Boys, which have been under criminal investigation for nearly three years. The institution also has been the subject of a wave of lawsuits, including one that has limited how the facility operates.
Records provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outline two incidents — one with the suicidal inmate, another with two disruptive male inmates — that resulted in use of force or pepper spray. In both cases, actions of supervisors and staff members were pre-approved and then found to be justified.
According to those records:
On Nov. 4, staff at Copper Lake noticed a female inmate had her window covered and was trying to cut her arm with a sharpened piece of a plastic spoon. As staff discussed what to do, the inmate tied a T-shirt to her window.
A staff member called for a tactical team and talked to the inmate, persuading her to uncover the window.
The inmate, who has a long history of assaults on staff and other youth, refused to cooperate further and still had the sharpened plastic. The tactical team got approval from supervisors for a “planned use of force” and went into the cell.
The floor of her cell was covered with what appeared to be vomit, urine and blood. The inmate threw two cups of urine at the team and kicked, thrashed, spit and tried to bite them, according to incident reports. A staff member pried away the sharpened plastic, while others restrained her wrists and ankles.
Once they got her to the shower, she continued to fight with staff and made comments “about reporting this to the news and to her lawyer in an attempt to be released” and also claimed she was going to do whatever she had to do to get out "whether it was to report abuse from staff in (Copper Lake) or killing herself.”
Inside the shower, she tied what appeared to be a string or piece of cloth from a shirt or sweatshirt to the top of the stall in an effort to hurt herself. A staff supervisor pulled out pepper spray, pointed it at her and she stopped.
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The inmate was checked out by a nurse and later found to have a fever. Staff members placed her on a five-minute check system and gave her a thin gown and rubber mat instead of a blanket, consistent with procedures for suicidal inmates.
The staff members involved underwent protocol for exposure to bodily fluids and one reported a shoulder injury.
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Later that night, the same inmate tried to drown herself in her toilet and flood her room by stuffing her gown down the toilet. She tied the wet gown in knots and whipped it at the cameras, window and light in her cell, trying to break them, staff members said.
A staff member reported turning off the water in her room. The inmate received a toilet flush and drink of water when she asked.
Lincoln Hills incident
The records also show pepper spray was used Nov. 5 when two inmates at Lincoln Hills refused to take their hands out of the “meal trap,” the pass-through slot for food trays.
The inmates had been disruptive during a classroom session and were taken to their living unit where they repeatedly refused orders to remove their hands. They taunted staff and one said he wanted to be sprayed.
A staff supervisor was authorized to use pepper spray and had a prescribed inhaler on hand before spraying each of them once, according to records.
Earlier this year, inmates brought a class-action lawsuit against prison officials and in July, a federal judge ordered them to scale back their use of pepper spray and solitary confinement.
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Workers at the prison have contended conditions have become less safe since that injunction was issued, citing the case of Pandora Lobacz, a Lincoln Hills teacher who was knocked out by an inmate in October.
Last month, Lincoln County District Attorney Galen Bayne-Allison charged Carlos Gonzalez with substantial battery and battery by a prisoner in that case. He also charged Gonzalez in separate assaults involving other Lincoln Hills workers.
Gonzalez was 16 at the time of the incidents. He turned 17 five days after he allegedly punched Lobacz and the charges were filed in adult court.
In one of the other incidents, Gonzalez in September allegedly punched a guard in the temple so hard he knocked out a tooth. The guard lost consciousness and felt like throwing up, he told a sheriff’s investigator. Gonzalez was charged with substantial battery and battery by a prisoner in that incident.
In the third incident, Gonzalez in September allegedly hit two guards with a shirt soaked in urine and feces. One was struck with the shirt in the face and the other in the back, according to the complaint. He was charged with assault by a prisoner in that case.
The prosecutor is seeking enhanced penalties for Gonzalez as a repeat offender. Since last year, Gonzalez has been convicted of robbery with use of force, throwing bodily fluid at a public safety worker, three counts of battery and two counts of disorderly conduct.
His robbery case was waived into the adult system and he was sent to Lincoln Hills until he turns 18 and can be transferred to an adult facility to finish his sentence.
This week, lawmakers from both parties circulated legislation that would require one or more secure residential care centers in Milwaukee County for juveniles from there that could be used instead of Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake.
Other counties would have the option of establishing such facilities under the bill by Reps. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee) and Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc).
Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff, reporting from Madison, contributed to this report.