By Ashley Luthern and Patrick Marley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWUAKEE — Inmates at Wisconsin’s troubled juvenile prison stole a cellphone from a supervisor and used it for a week or more to call girls, take selfies and broadcast segments on Facebook Live, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Corrections unit manager Rick Peterson initially did not report the phone missing from his office at Lincoln Hills School for Boys until well after the theft, the sources said.
Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook declined to provide details about what happened, other than to say it was the subject of an internal investigation. Peterson — who was demoted last year for failing to review sexual assault investigations conducted by his staff — has not been put on leave for the latest incident.
The cellphone saga comes at a time when Lincoln Hills is under criminal investigation and the subject of multiple lawsuits.
Inmates took Peterson’s state-issued cellphone and charger from his unlocked office sometime in October, according to one source.
On Oct. 31, Lincoln Hills was put on lockdown for a prison-wide search using workers from adult institutions. Staff turned up Peterson’s charger after the lockdown, according to sources.
An inmate reported Peterson worked out a deal with the inmates, telling them he would end the lockdown of their unit if they would return the cellphone, according to one source. Inmates then gave back the phone.
The teen also said inmates had used the phone to take selfies, go on Facebook Live and call girls and others outside the Northwoods prison.
Prison officials learned about what happened, in part, because one teen gave a detailed account after he was questioned in a separate incident.
In that other incident, inmates tried to pour a plastic tub full of urine on a female guard, according to a source. It was so heavy that they couldn’t pick it up, but when they tried to lift it, urine splashed on the guard.
Cook, the department spokesman, said an inmate dumped water — not urine — on a guard on Nov. 8. Two days later, a bin containing urine was found in that housing unit, he said.
Normally, inmates in juvenile and adult facilities have tight limits on their access to phones and computers. Juveniles must have people on their contact list approved by a social worker and the list is typically limited to immediate family.
With an unrestricted ability to make calls and use the internet, inmates could threaten victims and witnesses or conspire with criminals who are not behind bars. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was unable to learn if anything like that happened in this incident.
Peterson became Lincoln Hills’ security director — the No. 3 post at the institution — in 2015 but lost the post within eight months because he did not properly oversee more than two dozen rape and sexual assault investigations, the Journal Sentinel reported last year. His pay was cut from about $76,000 to about $68,000, but he was allowed to remain a supervisor.
Peterson received a $2,500 bonus in May for exemplary work, but prison officials rescinded it in June after the Journal Sentinel asked why he had gotten it in light of his demotion.
Peterson was recently put in charge of a new unit that houses some of the teen inmates with the greatest needs at Lincoln Hills. The living unit has more staff assigned to it as a way to prevent violent incidents and other disruptions.
Lincoln Hills and its sister facility, Copper Lake School for Girls, have been the subject of a criminal investigation for nearly three years that is looking into inmate abuse and child neglect.
In addition, inmates this year brought a class-action lawsuit against prison officials and in July a federal judge ordered them to scale back their use of pepper spray and solitary confinement. Several inmates have sued individually, as well, alleging they were mistreated at the prison complex 30 miles north of Wausau.
©2017 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel