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Q&A
Update on 'deadlocking' of seriously mentally ill individuals
3:08:20
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121 sec
Council Member Cabán requests an update on the practice of 'deadlocking' seriously mentally ill individuals in their cells without access to medical care. Chelsea Chard from the Department of Correction (DOC) responds to these concerns.
- Cabán describes reports of seriously mentally ill people being locked in cells for extended periods
- DOC referred the issue to the Department of Investigation (DOI) for investigation
- Written directives were issued to reinforce that deadlocking is not department policy
- The investigation is still ongoing with DOI
Tiffany Cabán
3:08:20
Great.
3:08:21
Thank you.
3:08:21
And now I want to shift over and ask about get an update on something that we've talked about at several different hearings.
3:08:30
So obviously last fall we heard these terrible reports about deadlocking, where officers were locking seriously mentally ill people into their cells for days, weeks straight without access to medical care.
3:08:41
We heard that already that people who were already very ill were deteriorating further.
3:08:46
People were, I mean, awful things.
3:08:49
Some people were smearing their cells with feces.
3:08:52
They included some people who were stuck at Rikers waiting for state hospital beds to open up.
3:08:57
There were reports and reasons given by DOC that ranged from assault on staff to involving somebody with a serious mental illness or simply to being looked at strangely by an individual.
3:09:13
So my question is, is deadlocking still occurring?
3:09:16
And what steps have you taken to make sure it doesn't happen?
3:09:20
Are staff receiving any additional training or support?
3:09:24
And has there been changes in staffing ratio or supervision levels in the mental health units where the deadlocking took place?
Chelsea Chard
3:09:35
Thank you for the question.
3:09:37
So I would start by saying that as the commissioner noted, we refer this immediately to DOI for investigation and it is still under investigation with DOI.
3:09:46
Shortly following that, there was issuance just to reinforce that it is not our policy.
3:09:51
That's nothing within our policy.
3:09:52
Staff are not supposed to be doing that.
3:09:54
And written directives were issued to reinforce that policy.
3:09:58
Certainly the commissioner made it a
Deanna Logan
3:09:59
point
Chelsea Chard
3:09:59
to ensure that all leadership are informed in that and reinforcing it all the way down As it's never something that that's not something that should be occurring under policy regardless of whatever situation may arise.
Tiffany Cabán
3:10:13
And what's the status of the investigation currently?
Chelsea Chard
3:10:17
I know it's still with DOI.
3:10:18
Can follow-up.
3:10:20
I don't know anything more than that.
Tiffany Cabán
3:10:21
Okay.