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Videos of two teen inmates being sprayed repeatedly by guards at the state's youth prison in Irma were released to the public on Thursday.

The

Videos showing two teen inmatesgetting hit with pepper spray were made public Thursday as part of an ongoing lawsuit over Wisconsin's controversial juvenile prison complex

That sentiment is shared by Marsha Levick, deputy director and chief counsel at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. 

“There’s no positive value to a false

Earlier this week, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Commonwealth v. Batts that, before a child can be sentenced to life without parole, the state must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the youth is permanently incorrigible. Juvenile Law Center filed amicus briefs in Batts and argued the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2012 and 2016.

LGBTQ youth are over-represented in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. The federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimates that LGBTQ youth are approximately 7% of the population generally but 13-15% of those in the juvenile justice system.

Yesterday, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that before youth can be sentenced to life without parole, the state bears a high burden of establishing they are permanently incorrigible.

In so doing, the high court underscored a string of federal rulings that have revolutionized the way that juveniles who commit the most serious of

Batts’ attorney Marsha Levick called the decision Monday a “very strong win” for Batts. A previous appeal was unsuccessful, but this decision means he’ll be

“What we won is really fundamental to giving these kids a fair shot, and also to really enforcing Miller and Montgomery in Pennsylvania,” said Marsha