Federal Prisons Are Restraining People for Weeks on End, Investigation Reveals

People incarcerated in federal prisons have been restrained for weeks at a time, sometimes for attempting to harm themselves, according to investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG.)

Despite pervasive problems with the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) use of restraints, the OIG’s investigation, published on July 29, revealed that “the BOP does not have a process for tracking, addressing, or mitigating systemic issues identified during incident reviews.”

Improper or insufficient documentation was also a widespread issue. In numerous instances, supporting documentation conflicted with the BOP’s reporting on the details of an incident, such as the type of restraints used and the length of time a person was restrained, according to the July 29 report.

People have been held in restraints — sometimes restrained by their wrists and ankles, a method known as four-point restraints — for weeks at a time, according to the OIG report released in June. One person had part of their leg amputated after they were restrained for over two days.

The Bureau of Prisons, which runs the federal prison systems, has no maximum amount of time a person can be kept in restraints. The agency’s policy on restraints requires approval by the warden to place a person in restraints, as well as checks every 15 minutes by correctional staff and every two hours by a lieutenant. Medical staff must assess people held in four-point restraints at least twice during each eight-hour shift to determine if the restraints are hampering circulation. Mental health staff must examine them at least once every 24-hour period.

The BOP has placed people in restraints for harming or threatening to harm themselves, according to the OIG. In one case, a person was confined to a restraint chair for 18 hours after they threatened to swallow a bottle of pain medication. The victim was not assessed by a psychologist at any point during those 18 hours.

In another incident, a person was placed in restraints for over 18 days because they repeatedly harmed themself. For nine of those days, both their wrists and ankles were restrained. Psychology Services visited this person once over the course of the time they were restrained.

“While we understand that restraints may be needed to address inmates who attempt or threaten self-harm, the OIG finds it troubling that inmates experiencing serious psychological difficulties may be restrained for such extended periods without more frequent mental health intervention, especially given the potential added psychological impact of being in restraints,” the OIG wrote in its June 30 report.

Restraining a person for hours or weeks can be deadly, and for those who survive, psychologically and physically damaging. In one case the OIG examined, a person died in federal custody from complications of sickle cell disease after being pepper sprayed and restrained for a prolonged period, according to the autopsy report.

In May, the mother of a man who died after he was restrained for days sued the BOP over her son’s death. David Blakeney was 32 years old when he died inside USP Canaan, a federal prison in Waymart, Pennsylvania.

According to the mother’s complaint, prison staff denied him medical attention and subjected him to physical and psychological abuse. They chained him to a bed for nine consecutive days, sometimes face-down. He died from an ulcer in his small intestine, a treatable and preventable condition. At autopsy, he had open wounds on his wrists and ankles from the restraints, two black eyes, and bruises and cuts all over his body.

The OIG discovered that there was little documentation as to why staff kept people in restraints for such long periods of time in cases where there was no evidence that the person posed a threat to themselves or others. In some cases, staff kept people in restraints even though the person was decompensating.

For the person who was confined to a restraint chair for over 18 hours, staff documented that for the last five hours, the victim was looking out the window or at the door, asking to be released or when they would be released, not responding or pulling on the shoulder straps.

In another case, a person was restrained by their wrists and ankles for 16 hours. For the final about seven hours, the staff documented that the victim “did not respond to officers, appeared to be sleeping, expressed regret, cried, or said that the inmate wanted to be taken out of restraints or to return to his cell.”