By C1 Staff
MIAMI — The Florida Department of Corrections plans to disallow the use of chemicals on prisoners with respiratory issues and is working to reduce the use of force on mentally ill inmates.
CBS News reports that the changes to policies come after reports of at least two prisoners dying as a result of complications from preexisting breathing-related medical conditions after being gassed by correctional officers.
“It’s not anything that’s happened on my watch, or even recently. But looking at history can help generate policy,” Florida DOC Secretary Julie Jones said. “And if we can keep an incident like any of those we’ve talked about in the past from happening again, that’s a good thing.
“I’m going to be very clear in our policy that if the health care folks say you can’t use chemical agents, you’re not going to use chemical agents. Period.”
Current policy requires medical staff to certify that chemical agents may be used on inmates who have certain medical conditions.
The way mentally ill inmates are handled during disturbances is also changing; state policy already bars the use of chemical agents on severely mentally-ill inmates, but use of force is allowed.
Mental-health workers will be required to conduct crisis interventions to determine the extent to which an inmate’s mental health diagnosis is related to their disruptive behavior.
If the crisis intervention doesn’t work, and the illness is determined to be the root of the problem, “the inmate will be placed in a level of care commensurate with his assessed mental health needs.”
If the issue is not related to the inmate’s illness, use of force can be used with the oversight of mental-health personnel.
Officers must undergo eight hours of “critical incident training” as part of an ongoing effort to change the culture of the corrections system.
Jones said she plans to increase staffing levels at the state’s mental-health units as part of a contract reworking with private health care vendors.