The Assembly Corrections Committee has advanced two Republican bills that could send more kids to Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison for longer stints. Rep. Bob Gannon (R-West Bend) said his sympathy meter is broken and the only way to control crime is to get “dirtballs off the street.” > AP News / US News & World Report
The executive director of the Wisconsin Justice Initiative makes the case that youths at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake juvenile prisons need a lot more help from the Legislature than they are getting. > The Cap Times
The ACLU of Wisconsin asked a judge Wednesday to temporarily ban the use of solitary confinement and other controversial punishments at the state’s Lincoln Hills prison for boys and Copper Lake prison for girls. > Wisconsin Justice Initiative
Boys and girls at Wisconsin’s Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake youth prisons are strip searched frequently, sometimes in the sight of other inmates, according to new allegations in a federal court lawsuit over conditions at the two facilities. > Wisconsin Justice Initiative blog post
