Council Member Hudson questions restraints and medical consultation

I just wanted to ask a few questions about restraints.

Are medical personnel consulted before restraints are applied to a pregnant person?

I don't think we've had any specific incidents in recent history that I can call to mind, but I think generally what would be occurring is

someone who is kind of an imminent risk of harm against themselves or others.

So in that case, if we are trying to prevent harm imminently,

and de-escalation and all that hasn't worked, then we would be applying the restraints directly to prevent harm immediately.

Without consulting a medical professional?

In some cases.

And then can a medical provider direct DOC personnel to remove constraints?

Restraints, excuse me.

I'm not aware, but I don't believe so because, again, the situations in which restraints would ever be contemplated would be, again, very rare and someone who is at immediate and kind of immense risk of harm,

as I noted previously.

We're not waiting until we get to a certain location or a certain thing to happen to remove those restraints.

As soon as a person is calm and it's safe to do so, the restraints are removed.

So that we can prevent further harm.

Okay.

And has DOC reviewed or revised its restraint policy in response to incidents, complaints, or recommendations from oversight agencies?

I don't believe it's been revised in the past few years, although I'm not aware of specific complaints that we would have received that would have necessitated that.

Again, it's extremely rare that this would occur, and we don't have any incidents, I think, going back as far as six years.

Okay.

Thank you.