QUESTION
How is the Department of Correction addressing issues with chemical agent use highlighted in a recent report?
3:58:20
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97 sec
The Department of Correction is currently reviewing a report on chemical agent use and plans to detail its response at an upcoming Board of Correction hearing.
- The report documents 2972 incidents of chemical agent use in the first 10 months of 2023.
- Instances include the use of chemical agents on individuals self-harming and a shackled inmate deprived of medication.
- The report also highlights the use of potent chemical agents and potential gaps in officer training.
- The Department of Correction is examining the report and will discuss its findings and actions during a board hearing next week.
Sandy Nurse
3:58:20
I wanted to talk about the use of chemical agents or pepper spray.
3:58:25
The border correction released a report that looked at a number of use a number of incidents where chemical agents were used It looked at a period of about 10 months, the 1st 10 months of 2023.
3:58:39
It was used 2972 times.
3:58:43
The report lists several instances where officers used chemical agent on individuals who appeared to be inflicting self harm.
3:58:51
On 8 separate occasions, as well as an instance where Antetani was shackled to a wheelchair later to find that he was only out of his cell because he had not received his blood pressure medication for 2 weeks.
3:59:03
We also saw that the report showed that officers are utilizing the highest the strongest form of chemical agent and may not have been trained recently or retrained recently on this.
3:59:17
So how are you all responding to that report, what what actions are you taking to ensure that officers are proper deescalation protocols and proper protocols for the use of chemical agent.
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie
3:59:32
So we just received that report So we are looking through that report internally.
3:59:36
We're actually presenting at a board of correction hearing next week to go through it.
3:59:42
But we're still going through it right now.
3:59:45
And we could follow-up with you in terms of what steps we're gonna take, but we're still that's still ongoing internally.
Sandy Nurse
3:59:52
Okay.
3:59:53
I've reached through that in a day and had some pretty clear recommendations.