CHEYENNE, Wyo.– Staff at the Wyoming State Prison for Juveniles locked youths in solitary confinement for weeks, repeatedly strapping one into a security chair for up to 12 hours a day, and mocking another while withholding the leg brace he needed for months for his disability. claims a federal lawsuit.
The abuses of which the Wyoming Boys School is accused coincided with steep state budget cuts that closed part of the facility, and occurred while most other states are limiting or outright banning solitary confinement of youth.
Solitary confinement in adult prisons is increasingly criticized as a psychologically damaging and ultimately counterproductive way to enforce prison order in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and elsewhere. This practice is particularly harmful to the developing brains in juvenile facilities, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Casper.
Permanent psychiatric conditions, including paranoia and anxiety, can result for youth, according to the lawsuit filed by three former inmates against the Wyoming Department of Family Services, the Wyoming Boys School and 10 employees of the facility, including Superintendent Dale Weber.
“The harms experienced by people in solitary confinement are well understood and recognized by mental health researchers, physicians, the human rights community, and corrections officials,” the lawsuit said.
President Barack Obama banned solitary confinement for juveniles in federal custody in 2016. Twenty-five states now limit or ban solitary confinement for youth following new laws last year in Minnesota and Illinois, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Others limit the use of solitary confinement for youth through administrative code, policy, or court rules. Wyoming is among a handful of states without restrictions.
At the Wyoming Boys School, a state-run correctional facility for youth ages 12 to 21, solitary confinement is supposed to last as long as necessary. Yet the practice is common and even increasing there, with wait times doubling between 2019 and 2021, the lawsuit said.
Boys are locked up in their room or in a cell smaller than a parking lot, with only a toilet, a mattress on the floor and no form of entertainment except schoolwork.
The Wyoming Department of Family Services, which oversees the Wyoming Boys School, refutes the allegations of misconduct in the lawsuit, department spokesman Clint Hanes said by email.
“We look forward to formally responding to the complaint and having our day in court,” Hanes wrote.
A former Wyoming Boys School inmate who is suing spent periods of 30 and 45 days in solitary confinement, with the shorter period occurring in a dormitory building recently vacated due to state budget cuts, the lawsuit says.
During that period, the boy was restrained by his hands, stomach and feet in a safety chair for up to 12 hours a day for two weeks, leading to an eventual suicide attempt and lasting psychological damage, the lawsuit alleges.
Another youth charges that he attempted suicide after 20 periods of solitary confinement, ranging from days to two weeks, that worsened his mental illness, the lawsuit said.
The third plaintiff was kept isolated in his room for all but a week and a half of the five months he spent at the Wyoming Boys School, only being allowed to shower or go to the toilet, so rarely that he developed a bladder infection. the lawsuit alleges.
Meanwhile, staff took away the leg brace he needed because of a birth defect, mocked the way he walked and called him a “zombie” and a “clown” because of his disability, the lawsuit alleges, saying he now needs reconstructive leg surgery needs after being without braces for so long.
State judges and fellow lawmakers have pushed back against banning solitary confinement and limiting the use of restraints on youth, said state Rep. Karlee Provenza, a Democrat with a doctorate in experimental psychology.
“We must ban solitary confinement and completely overhaul the way we treat our young people in Wyoming – the evidence and recent court case support this,” Provenza said by email.
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This story has been updated to correct the day the lawsuit was filed. It was Monday and not Tuesday.