MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new report shows guards at Wisconsin’s troubled youth prison used pepper spray on more than 50 inmates during the first half of 2017.
Attorneys for the state Department of Corrections submitted the report Thursday to U.S. District Judge James Peterson, who had ordered the agency to review pepper spray from January to June as part of an order to drastically reduce the use of pepper spray, solitary confinement and shackles at the prison outside Irma.
The report found a total of 103 pepper spray incidents involving 51 children. One child was pepper sprayed on 12 different occasions. Another was pepper sprayed nine times.
The prison held about 331 youth during the first half of the year.
Pepper spray was most often used because inmates were physically resisting staff.
