MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The security director at Wisconsin’s juvenile prisons says he wants to reduce the amount of time that youth inmates are put into solitary confinement. But Brian Gustke testified in federal court Thursday that there are impediments to doing that. He says those include high turnover and vacancies in prison staff that leads to forced overtime, not knowing schedules and “confusion on everyone’s part, staff as well as the youth.” Gustke defends the tactics used by guards as a way to maintain the safety and security both of staff and inmates, while admitting that the policies that lead to someone being put into solitary confinement could be improved. He says as of Wednesday, 20 of the 173 inmates at the Lincoln Hills boys prison were in segregated units.
