MADISON, Wis. — The state Department of Corrections reached an $18.9 million settlement Tuesday with a former youth prison inmate who suffered brain damage after she tried to hang herself in her cell. Sydni Briggs’ attorney, Eric Haag, said in a statement that the deal is the largest civil rights settlement the state has ever paid. “I am satisfied that this historic settlement will have a real and significant impact on the quality of Sydni’s life, for the rest of her life,” Haag said. “This was a very preventable tragedy and her life has been needlessly changed forever.”Briggs was 16 in July 2015 when she was sentenced to the state’s youth prison outside Irma for theft. The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Tuesday hours before the settlement was announced that would close the youth prison by 2021 and replace it with smaller regional facilities.

Source: National Post March 20, 2018 23:26 UTC