Skip to Content Facebook Feature Image

Wisconsin's Evers urges federal judge not to make changes at youth prison in wake of counselor death

News

Wisconsin's Evers urges federal judge not to make changes at youth prison in wake of counselor death
News

News

Wisconsin's Evers urges federal judge not to make changes at youth prison in wake of counselor death

2024-08-15 08:56 Last Updated At:09:00

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers asked a federal judge Wednesday not to impose any changes at Wisconsin's youth prison after an inmate was accused of killing a counselor during a fight earlier this summer, insisting conditions at the prison have been slowly improving despite the death.

Evers, a Democrat, said in the letter to James Peterson, chief judge for the Western District of Wisconsin, that Republican lawmakers could soon ask him to give Lincoln Hills-Copper Lakes Schools more leeway in punishing incarcerated children. The governor said that it's important to remember that brutal staff-on-inmate punishments led to tighter restrictions on what action staff can take.

Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake is Wisconsin's only youth prison. The facility has been plagued by allegations of staff-on-inmate abuse, including excessive use of pepper spray, restraints and strip searches.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit in Madison in 2017 demanding changes at the prison. Then-Gov. Scott Walker's administration settled the lawsuit in 2018 by agreeing to abide by a consent decree that prohibits punitive confinement, restricts confinement to 12 hours, restricts the use of mechanical restraints to handcuffs and prohibits the use of pepper spray. A court-appointed monitor has been checking the prison's compliance ever since.

According to prosecutors, a 16-year-old boy attacked a counselor on June 24, punching her before fleeing into an outdoor courtyard. Counselor Corey Proulx confronted him, and the boy punched him in the face. Proulx fell and hit his head on concrete pavement. He was pronounced brain-dead two days later.

His death has pushed Lincoln Hills-Copper Lake staff to demand more freedom in dealing with inmates. Republican lawmakers sympathetic to their demands have been talking about asking Peterson to revise the consent decree to give them more latitude, including allowing them to use pepper spray. Sen. Van Wanggaard, chair of the Senate judiciary committee, released a letter Wednesday to state Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy signed by a host of GOP legislators demanding he ask Peterson for changes.

“Lincoln Hills staff need to get the bullseye off their back, so that they may safely and efficiently ensure the security and welfare of themselves and the residents of Lincoln Hills," the letter said.

Asked if Hoy would comply, Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback released Evers' letter to Peterson. The letter was dated Wednesday, but Cudaback said the administration had been working on it before receiving the Republicans' request.

Evers reminded Peterson in the letter of the abuse that led to the consent decree in the first place and said Republicans are refusing to acknowledge that history. The governor added that he doubts the ACLU would support any changes.

He went on to detail changes at the youth prison, saying relationships between staff and inmates have improved and that Hoy received a letter last week from the president of Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators board recognizing Wisconsin as an emerging leader in prison reforms.

Evers added that since Proulx's death, the facility has been working to increase staff-to-inmate ratios, utilizing overtime when needed. Supervisors regularly ask staff about their comfort levels, especially when staffing levels are lower, he said.

He intends to visit the prison later this month, and Hoy has been working there at least one day a week since Proulx's death, the governor wrote.

Emily Stedman, one of the lead attorneys for the ACLU in the 2017 lawsuit, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the governor's letter.

Wanggaard aide Scott Kelly said in a text to The Associated Press on Wednesday evening that instead of being open to balance and change, Evers was instead doubling down on policies that created the dangerous conditions at the prison.

FILE - This aerial photo shows Lincoln Hills juvenile prison on Dec. 10, 2015, in Irma, Wis. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, File)

FILE - This aerial photo shows Lincoln Hills juvenile prison on Dec. 10, 2015, in Irma, Wis. (Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, File)

LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.

There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but most by individuals. The motives – where they could be established – have varied widely. Some were inspired by Islamic militant groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, which encouraged followers to carry out low-cost, low-tech attacks with cars and trucks. Others have been linked to mental illness, far-right extremism and online misogyny.

What law-enforcement authorities term “vehicle as a weapon attacks” have reshaped cities around the world, as planners erect concrete barriers around public spaces and build anti-vehicle obstacles into new developments.

Here are some major vehicle attacks:

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family die when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck while they are out for a walk, in what Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist attacker Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drives a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.

NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight.

BARCELONA, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man driving a van slams into people on the Spanish city’s crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring many others. Several members of the same cell carry out a similar vehicle attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils before they are shot dead by police. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, Aug. 12, 2017 — During a “Unite the Right” rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drives his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people.

LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a policeman guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He is shot dead. June 3, 2017 — three attackers drive a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed and the attackers shot dead by police. June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 20, 2017 – Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in Australia’s second-largest city. Perpetrator James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis.

BERLIN, December 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum-seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

NICE, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck for more than a mile (almost 2 kilometers) along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind.

APELDOORN, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 – Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, lightly injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas.

FILE - Injured people are treated in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran, File)

FILE - Injured people are treated in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran, File)

FILE - In this April 23, 2018, file photo, police stand near a damaged van after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

FILE - In this April 23, 2018, file photo, police stand near a damaged van after a van mounted a sidewalk crashing into pedestrians in Toronto. (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

FILE - Forensic officers move the van at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London Monday, June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

FILE - Forensic officers move the van at Finsbury Park in north London, where a vehicle struck pedestrians in north London Monday, June 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo the trailer of a truck stands beside destroyed Christmas market huts in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, killing 86 people. (Sasha Goldsmith via AP, File)

FILE - In this July 14, 2016 file photo, authorities investigate a truck after it plowed through Bastille Day revelers in the French resort city of Nice, France, killing 86 people. (Sasha Goldsmith via AP, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, police secure the area on the south side of Westminster Bridge close to the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 22, 2017 file photo, police secure the area on the south side of Westminster Bridge close to the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

FILE - People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)

FILE - People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo Christmas decoration sticks in the smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Monday evening killing several people in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo Christmas decoration sticks in the smashed window of the cabin of a truck which ran into a crowded Christmas market Monday evening killing several people in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

Recommended Articles