598. Copper Lake School

In an early post we wrote about Lincoln Hills School and now it seems that the problems have hit Copper Lake School for girls also.

It is welknown that many of the teenagers who are locked up in reality should have been offered treatment because they in reality are suffering from various mental issues. Suicide attempts are a cry for help and should not be met with punishment but hospitalization instead.

Big central institutions are a thing of the past. Specialized group homes which can make individual plans for the childrens return to the society as productive citizens are the path of the future.

Of course it is not fun to be placed in prison as a teenager but at these two prisons the punishment extend what the judges metered out in courts and that is not fair.

Sources:

• Iowa girls were abused at Wisconsin facility after Iowa closed Toledo school, lawsuits say (The Desmoines Register)
• Girl gravely injured in suicide attempt at Copper Lake prison (JS Online)
• At Wisconsin Juvenile Prisons, Children Face a Nightmare of Solitary Confinement and Abuse (Solitary Watch)
• 4 months at Lincoln Hills: Nearly 500 incidents, 32 injuries to youth (Wisconsin State Journal)