Chair Brooks-Powers asks about written restraint policy for pregnant people

Restraints.

What is the Department of Correction current written policy governing restraints on pregnant people?

Our current policy is in alignment with state guidelines.

And so I think, as I had said previously, the goal is never to use restraints on an individual who is either pregnant or eight weeks postpartum.

In the case that someone is having a challenging time, which, of course, this is a hard time to be pregnant there in jail.

There is, the training is essentially what we would want for any avoidance of, you know, using restraints, which is a lot of de-escalation, a lot of talking with the person.

You know, I think a lot of our staff have rapport with folks.

And so in moments when someone's upset or they're getting escalated in some way, there is an emphasis on de-escalating and trying to calm the person down for however long that takes.

And really only in the case that someone is essentially coming to the point of self-harm and imminent risk of harming themselves is when we would consider using restraints.

And the only restraints that are to be used are in

front of the body and we remove those as soon as the person is calmed down.

We don't wait to get to any particular location.

So in the case they need to be used, they're used for as short of a duration as possible.

And then as I mentioned, there is a report that's generated following that.

And in the case that restraints are used, the woman is also escorted to clinic or otherwise does receive a medical follow-up after that incident.

Thank you.

The chair is going to have some more questions around that.