Iowa to pay $5 million in legal fees in school abuse case

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials have agreed to pay a group of attorneys nearly $5 million in a case that showed staff wrongly kept boys at a state-run school in isolation chambers and restraints. 

The Iowa Appeals Board on Tuesday approved the payment to attorneys for former students of the Iowa Boys State Training School in Eldora. The former students earlier won a lawsuit against the state over their mistreatment. The school houses boys who have committed crimes. 

During the trial, witnesses testified that students were often kept in isolation for weeks or put in a device called “the wrap” that left them immobilized for up to five hours.