A new report suggests staff physically restrained and involuntarily medicated over half of their patients at the Department of Correction’s Bridgewater State Hospital over six months.
The report by Disability Law Center focused on the facility that houses over 200 men suffering from mental illness, and alleged staff used force to inject sedatives into unwilling patients. The group recounted some of 15 incidents, documented by video, where staff in riot gear held down patients as they were injected with medications, often despite their protests and without an indication that there was an emergency.
“The pattern and practice of violent staff interventions would not be accepted in a DMH [Department of Mental Health]-licensed psychiatric hospital,” wrote authors from the center, which is charged by state courts with monitoring whether reforms are happening at Bridgewater.
The group identified 130 patients in the past six months who received injections — called emergency treatment orders — and noted that this was over half of the number of patients at the facility during that time frame. The report alleged those injections weren’t being properly documented by Bridgewater State Hospital medical provider Wellpath. Still, available documentation indicated that the injections “were administered almost invariably in conjunction with manual holds, mechanical restraints or during seclusion.”
The Department of Correction, which oversees the facility, didn’t return requests for comment.
“It’s really disturbing to read the report,” said Representative Mary Keefe, a legislator who visited Bridgewater on Friday to check in on heat and health-related complaints about the facility with four other members of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus. “Unfortunately our visitors are so monitored and controlled that we’re not able to hear these stories,” she added.
The Disability Law Center’s findings come from weekly visits, interviews with recently released patients, medical records, staff meetings, and incident reports. The video footage was acquired when the center invoked its authority as a disability rights agency investigating abuse, and they later interviewed patients about what they saw.
The center says that in one video, four staffers in riot gear arrived outside the room of a patient called Edwin two hours after he and another patient pushed each other. He sees the staffers, tries to walk out the door, but is knocked down and pulled by his legs back into the room.
“Eventually, the [patient] ends up on his stomach atop his bed. His pants are pulled down in front of the crowd and all four [staff] keep their hands on his limbs as the nurse administers four intramuscular shots,” the report said.
The Disability Law Center said this kind of involuntary encounter could be particularly damaging for people who had experienced sexual assault. Patients reported having diagnosed fractures and bruises after being forced down during the injections.
“It’s remarkable when you look at it just to think that it would be used on people who are committed to a facility for care and treatment of behavioral health conditions,” said Disability Law Center litigation director Tatum Pritchard.
“Obviously the use of force is something the DOC embraces,” Keefe said. She said there would not appear to be any reason for forceful intervention in cases where “patients were able to go back to their room and de-escalate and, you know, leave the scene of whatever was going on.”
This isn’t the first time the DOC has heard complaints about how these injections happen, and if they should happen at all. A report last winter mentioned the injections, albeit without the video footage documenting the aggressive procedures.
In a March letter to Pritchard, Department of Correction commissioner Carol Mici defended the seclusion and restraint of patients, saying it is based on “the entirety of the patient’s clinical record and specific circumstances presented.” Mici argued the injections were for treatment, and not a form of restraint.
Senator Jamie Eldridge said the legislators met with directors of social work, security and psychiatry on Friday, the latter of which he said helps decide things like “restraint to seclusion to medication.”
Eldridge said the conversations were positive, but “at the end of the day, it's just not a positive environment for people with mental health problems, despite the best efforts of Wellpath.”
Legislators met with more than 15 patients. From Eldridge’s conversations, he garnered most had mental health issues most of their lives, and he didn’t observe any violence. But he said their conditions suggest it might make more sense to put them in a “true” Department of Mental Health facility.
The Disability Law Center has long advocated for switching jurisdiction of Bridgewater from the Department of Correction to Department of Mental Health, and Rep. Ruth Balser has filed bills in multiple legislative sessions to make that switch, and restrict use of force.
A trained clinical psychologist, Balser said there’s a significant problem around the criminalization of the people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system.
“There have been a series of reports that have been really alarming, and they all make me continue to believe that we should ultimately transfer oversight of that facility from the Department of Correction to the Department of Mental Health,” she said, adding that the skill level for staff dealing with patients would be higher than through the Department of Correction.
