- In tonight's closer look, a federal judge in Madison has
ordered changes in use of solitary confinement and pepper
spray at Wisconsin's juvenile prison.
The ruling came last week as the result of one of the lawsuits
filed on behalf of inmates at Lincoln Hills
and Copper Lakes School.
Even as a federal investigation into the operation of the
institution continues, one Madison man takes his skills
both professional and personal on the road each week,
traveling more than five hours round trip to the institution in
northern Wisconsin.
- As dawn breaks,
Lamar Skinner packs up for the long trip north.
Every week, Skinner takes his skills on the road to Irma.
He's been hired as a barber at the Lincoln Hills Copper Lake
School, Wisconsin's juvenile detention center.
- There's a guy that's been working there
for about 30 years.
He's like, "Man, I'm glad you're here.
I'm glad you're here.
They just didn't understand.
You gotta have an African-American
to cut these African-American kids' hair."
- Skinner came to take the job
after one of his regulars saw a need.
- Who comes in?
Well, we got Everett Mitchell.
We got Reverend Larry right here, Jackson in the chair.
- It was Dane County Judge Everett Mitchell who thought of
his own barber back in Madison.
- Well, he just took a visit and he saw some kids that needed
some haircuts.
- Skinner's adult clientele reads like a who's who
of community leaders.
- We build during these times.
We joke a little bit.
That's what it's about for me.
It's always good to have an elder around.
I can pick Larry's brain all day.
- Those elders approve of their barber's work at the youth
prison.
- By Lamar being there as an African-American,
just his presence will encourage a lot of them.
Just by him being African-American in there
doing something positive.
- Just like he said, I'm just living proof that you can
actually achieve something without being negative about it.
- For his part, Skinner says 30 haircuts a day is hard work.
It's emotionally draining, too.
- They're far away from home.
Far away from everything they know and love.
So I know it's bittersweet,
I guess is the best way to describe it.
You got young people, some of them are facing a lot of time.
And some of them are going to get a chance to go home.
- Skinner says he tries to be a role model as a businessman,
a parent for the young people sitting in his chair inside the
facility.
- I just try to put a little positivity in there,
shed a little light on something that they could be doing,
maybe get them to think in a different way.
It's about all I can do.
I'm pretty much there for the haircut,
but if I can insert little bits and pieces of things they can
use, I do that.
- As Skinner plies his trade with a different clientele week
by week, haircut by haircut, he hopes he's making a difference
in some young lives.
He says there is a connection: respect.
- When I'm there, they sweep up the hair.
They thank me.
They shake my hand.
They're polite.
You know, just regular kids.
They got in some trouble.
I didn't know I was going to like it that much until I got
into it.
Just seeing the kids smile, you know.
That's good enough for me.
- Still, on the long road trip back to Madison and his Park
street barbershop, Skinner reflects on his own fortunes
compared to those he leaves behind the gates.
- It can get sad, not for me, because I get to go home,
you know.
I get to go home.
So for them, I can kind of see, you know,
where they can have some days where it's frustrating and it's
not, you know, it's not the place they want to be.
- The federal judge in Madison gave parties in the Lincoln
Hills lawsuit until July 7 to come up with a plan reducing the
use of solitary confinement and pepper spray at the juvenile