By Mrinal Gokhale
Youth incarceration has been a hot topic in the United States for many years.
Wisconsin is no stranger to this controversy, with the Lincoln Hills juvenile detention center under investigation for inmate abuse.
The Youth First Initiative recently identified the 80 most notorious youth prisons in the country, which they aim to shut down.
The Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls in Irma, WI were on this shut-down list, along with other facilities in 39 states total.
The Youth First Initiative campaign was launched over a press call on March 3 at 11 am, moderated by Liz Ryan, CEO of Youth First Initiative, Michael Bocian of GBA Strategies, Da’Quon Beaver of the Legal Aid Justice Center and senior advocacy consultant Jill Ward.
“Part of our initiative is shutting down youth prisons and advocating for community based alternatives,” said Ryan.
In the last six months, Ryan said they’ve been conducting research and identifying the oldest, largest prisons with 100 or more beds, along with facilities established 100 or more years ago.
“We contacted the U.S. Department of Justice plus state government officials and advocates, finding out where kids are locked up in each state and whether there is a history of abuse,” said Ryan.
Jill Ward introduced herself as the data researcher for an inventory tool used to identify youth prisons in the U.S. that show characteristics similar to adult prisons.
These traits and practices include: using chemical or physical restraint, isolating inmates, housing hundreds of inmates per facility, military style programming and retaliation towards inmates for reporting abuse.
“Of the 80 facilities, we found 76 were designed for 100 beds or more, 33 designed for 200 beds, 18 designed for 300 beds, 34 facilities were established over 100 years ago and 18 were established in Continued on page 8 Lee A. Daniels 1800s,” said Ward.
When it comes to Lincoln Hills, Ryan said the facility has been around for 100 years or more, and is currently housing 380 inmates while also utilizing adult like practices.
“Lincoln Hills is similar to the other 79 prisons for its size and how long it has been around, but dissimilar in that there have been very recent abuse investigations,” said Ryan.
She feels it is worth noting Wisconsin’s racial disparities when it comes to incarcerating youth.
“In Wisconsin, African American youth are 18 times more likely to be incarcerated than white kids and 58 percent of incarcerated Wisconsin youth are African American,” she said.
Da’Quon Beaver, 22, is from Virginia, which has a facility on the shut-down list. Starting at the ripe age of 14, he spent seven years in the juvenile justice system in three facilities, all of which held over 100 hundred of inmates.
“Anything you imagine takes place in an adult prison also takes place in youth prisons like fights, riots and abuse,” he said on the call.
“Those with mental illness didn’t get proper treatment, and were placed in isolation units just for having disabilities.”
He also said there was little education, leaving inmates with nothing to do for 12 hours per day.
“We went weeks with no school due to lack of security,” he recalled. But he feels the worst form of abuse happens when inmates are isolated from their families.
“Calls cost about $10, and family couldn’t always visit due to lack of transportation, long driving distance or having to take off from work.”
Since his release, Beaver has been working as a community organizer in the Legal Aid Justice Center, advocating for teenagers in the juvenile justice system.
“These prisons aren’t working and we can change that. This is not a job to me; it’s a passion.” Visit youthfirstinitiative.org for more information.
