News & Commentary

Campaign materials from Casey Shorts, a candidate for Milwaukee County Supervisor, listed a supporter with an ACLU affiliation. We wish to clarify that the ACLU is a nonpartisan organization that does not support, oppose or endorse candidates.

Milwaukee, WI (March 22, 2018) –  The Wisconsin State Legislature passed a bill, which Governor Walker has pledged to sign, to close Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake, two controversial and beleaguered youth correctional facilities, by January 1, 2021.  This move comes after years of federal and state investigations into the facilities and a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Wisconsin and Juvenile Law Center, with pro-bono assistance from Quarles & Brady. The bill requires the state to establish new Type 1 juvenile correctional facilities and authorizes counties to establish secured residential care centers for children and youth.“Closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake is the right move,” said Jessica Feierman, Associate Director of Juvenile Law Center. “Unfortunately, the current legislation also directs too many resources into secure care for young people.  Now the key for all stakeholders – including the study committee created by the Act, the legislature, and the public – will be to ensure that the harsh and unconstitutional practices used at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake are never replicated.”“The best way to do this is to ensure that as many young people as possible are in their own homes receiving any needed services,” said Feierman. “Any youth placed outside the home should be in as family-like settings as possible.  Policies should be guided by evidence about what works and responsive to the input of youth in the juvenile justice system, their families, and their communities.”Children at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake have routinely been placed in solitary confinement, put in mechanical restraints, pepper-sprayed, and strip-searched. Prior to state and federal raids on the facility in December 2015, staff also regularly physically abused youth in the facility, even breaking their arms and legs in some cases. Horrific conditions persisted – approximately 15 to 20% percent the young residents are confined in seven by ten-foot solitary confinement cells for 22 or 23 hours per day. “While this is a step in the right direction, we will continue to pay attention to how young people are treated so long as they remain at the Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake Schools and while they are being moved from the current facilities,” said Larry Dupuis, Legal Director of ACLU of Wisconsin. “Our lawsuit is against the Department of Corrections officials and we will continue to fight to ensure that any resolution of our lawsuit protects the children in the custody of the state.”This bill also creates a Juvenile Corrections Study Committee, which is required to research and develop recommendations for locations of Type 1 facilities, services, and programming for children and youth and DOC’s rules for governing detention centers. The bill requires the committee to submit these recommendations to DOC no later than July 1, 2020.Juvenile Law Center and ACLU of Wisconsin’s complaint asserted that these unconstitutional practices violated children’s constitutional rights, including their rights to substantive due process, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, as guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Wisconsin State Assembly proposed a $350 million plan to build a new prison.  The following is a joint statement from the ACLU of Wisconsin, African-American Civic Engagement Roundtable, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), Black Lives Matter to Wisconsin Unitarian Universalists, Dane County's Derail the Jail Coalition, The Demeter Foundation, The Dominican Center, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, EXPO (EX-incarcerated People Organizing), FCAB (Felmers Chaney Advocacy Board), Free The 350 Bail Fund in Dane County, GenderQueer Milwaukee, Grass Roots Northshore, JOSHUA, Kids Forward, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT), Madison Chapter National Lawyers Guild, Madison-area Urban Ministry, MICAH (Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope), Milwaukee Muslim Women's Coalition, Milwaukee National Lawyers Guild, Milwaukee Turners' Confronting Mass Incarceration, NAACP Milwaukee Branch, National Association of Social Workers – Wisconsin, Operation Welcome Home (OWH), Our Democracy 2020, Our Wisconsin Revolution--Dane County, People's Progressive Organizing Committee, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, Priceless Incite, Progressive Baptist Church, Rid Racism Milwaukee, Schools and Communities United, SOPHIA, Uplifting Black Liberation and Community (UBLAC), Wisconsin Council of Churches, Wisconsin Justice Initiative, Wisconsin Network for Peace Justice and Sustainability (WNPJS), Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign, Wisconsin Transgender Health Coalition, Wisconsin Unitarian Universalist State Action Network, Wisconsin Voices, WISDOM, and Youth Justice Milwaukee, YWCA of Southeastern Wisconsin, and 9 to 5 Wisconsin reacting to the announcement:

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Wisconsin, and the law firm of Covington & Burling have served reports by three experts regarding the Milwaukee Police Department’s (“MPD”) stop-and-frisk program, in the class-action lawsuit Collins v. City of Milwaukee.  All three experts agree that the MPD promotes stops made without reasonable suspicion as required by law, disproportionately subjecting people of color to stigmatizing police encounters. The reports are being released publicly to ensure that the information and analyses they contain is available to Milwaukee residents as they move forward with community conversations regarding MPD policies and practices.Margo L. Fraiser is an expert with more than 40 years of law enforcement and criminal justice experience, including as the Police Monitor for the City of Austin, Texas; the Sheriff of Travis County, Texas; and the President of the Major County Sheriffs’ Ass

Bill Introduced Following Juvenile Law Center, ACLU of Wisconsin Class Action Civil Rights Lawsuit on Behalf of Youth

The City of La Crosse is working to amend its ordinance restricting political signs

With just a few weeks until the first of several important statewide elections this year, the Wisconsin Senate just voted 18 – 12, along party lines, to fire the administrator of Wisconsin's Elections Commission, Michael Haas.