The probe is looking into allegations of prisoner abuse, child neglect and other crimes. Separately, state officials face multiple lawsuits over the facility, including one that resulted in a court order to reduce the use of solitary confinement and pepper spray.
Wall noted the lead investigator Schimel assigned to the case worked on it part time. Work on Lincoln Hills was put off as the investigator focused on other cases, Wall said.
Department of Justice officials were "dragging their feet unbearably” and the Lincoln Hills probe was “constantly put on the back burner,” Wall told WKOW.
"The FBI involvement in the end was a Hail Mary pass by the Department of Justice," Wall said. "They just wanted to get it out of their lap.
"It had been completely botched.”
Records from the Department of Justice and Department of Corrections show the probe was
conducted in fits and starts when Schimel’s agency was in charge of it.
Wall said the DOJ had created a timeline that was “20 feet long” about its work on the probe, but that the timeline included significant gaps. Schimel's office declined to release a copy of the timeline last year.
Wall said he found out in November 2015 that Department of Justice investigators had not gathered medical records or prison reports about incidents in which teen inmates said their arms had been broken by staff. Wall expressed alarm that investigators had not taken those basic steps to try to verify the claims.
