Immediate Placement Responses to Violence

RCNY tit. 40, ch. 6, subch. C

in effect

40 RCNY § 6-04 Pre-Hearing Temporary Restrictive Housing.

§ 6-04 Pre-Hearing Temporary Restrictive Housing. (a) The Department may place a person in custody in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing if the person is under investigation for or charged with an infraction and meets the following criteria: (1) The person is reasonably believed by the Department to have committed a Grade I violent offense within the past one (1) business day; (2) The person's removal from general population is necessary to protect the safety of any person, including staff or other people in custody, prior to the person's hearing; and (3) The person has caused serious physical injury or poses a specific and significant risk of imminent serious physical injury to staff or other incarcerated persons. (b) Placement in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing must be approved in writing by the Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner, or another equivalent member of Department senior leadership over the operations of security. The written approval shall include the basis for a reasonable belief that the incarcerated person has committed a Grade I violent offense, and whether such person has caused serious physical injury or poses a specific and significant risk of imminent serious physical injury to staff or other incarcerated persons. (c) A person in custody who qualifies for and is placed in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing shall be afforded a disciplinary hearing as soon as reasonably practicable but no later than five (5) days after the person’s placement in pre-hearing detention, unless such person placed in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing seeks a postponement of such hearing. Time spent in such detention prior to the hearing shall count toward the person’s sentence to restrictive housing and such time shall count toward the time limits in restrictive housing set forth in paragraph (1) of subdivision (h) of § 9-167 of the Administrative Code. (d) If the Department does not hold an infraction hearing within five (5) days and the person placed in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing has not sought a postponement of such hearing, the Department must release the person from pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing. (e) If the Department determines that the person’s retention in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing is not necessary for the safety or security of that person or others, including staff and other people in custody, the Department must release the person from pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing. (f) Pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing shall comply with all requirements for restrictive housing. (g) During the first day of placement in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing, Department staff must regularly monitor the person and engage in continuous crisis intervention and attempt de-escalation, work toward a person’s release from pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing and determine whether it is necessary to continue to hold the person in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing. (h) The Department shall provide the Board with a semiannual report with information related to its use of prehearing temporary restrictive housing including but not limited to: (1) the number of people placed in prehearing temporary restrictive housing, (2) their placement infractions, (3) time from placement to hearing, (4) whether people placed in pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing were adjudicated for continued placement in restrictive housing, and (5) any other information the Department or the Board deems relevant to the Board’s assessment of pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing. The report shall include data disaggregated by month. (i) The Board and the Department shall jointly develop reporting templates for the report required by 40 RCNY § 6-04(h) for approval by the Board. (Added City Record 6/9/2021, eff. 7/9/2021; amended City Record 6/28/2024, eff. 7/28/2024)

40 RCNY § 6-05 Confinement for De-Escalation Purposes.

§ 6-05 Confinement for De-Escalation Purposes. (a) The Department may only confine a person in custody for de-escalation purposes immediately following an incident where the person has caused physical injury or poses a specific risk of imminent serious physical injury to staff, themselves or other incarcerated persons. The purpose of de-escalation confinement is to: (1) Aid a person in calming behavior where such person poses an immediate threat to the safety of the person or others or significantly disrupts Department activities in progress. The Department may only resort to confinement for this purpose after other less restrictive measures have been exhausted or have been or are likely to be ineffective. (2) Temporarily place a person in custody for the person’s own safety after the person has been assaulted or otherwise victimized by another person in custody and such person poses a specific risk of imminent serious physical injury to staff, themselves or other incarcerated persons. (b) The Department shall immediately notify CHA of a person in custody’s placement in de- escalation confinement, including the initial and any subsequent locations of such confinement, so that the person’s access to medical and mental health services and medication is not interrupted. (c) The Department shall conduct visual and aural observation of every person in de-escalation confinement every fifteen (15) minutes, shall refer any health concerns to medical or mental health staff, and shall bring any person displaying any indications of any need for medical documentation, observation, or treatment to the medical clinic. (d) Suicide prevention aides may conduct check-ins with a person in de-escalation confinement at least every fifteen (15) minutes and refer any health concerns to department staff who will get medical or mental health staff to treat any reported immediate health needs. No suicide prevention aide shall face any retaliation or other harm for carrying out their role. (e) Department staff must regularly monitor a person in de-escalation confinement and engage in continuous crisis intervention and de-escalation to support the person’s health and well-being, attempt de-escalation, work toward a person’s release from de-escalation confinement and determine whether it is necessary to continue to hold such person in such confinement. (f) The Department shall only utilize individual cells for the purpose of de-escalation confinement. Such cells may not be located in intake areas or decontamination showers. (g) Cells used for de-escalation confinement must have the features specified in and be maintained in accordance with the personal hygiene and space requirements set forth in 40 RCNY § 1-03 and 40 RCNY § 1-04. (h) Throughout de-escalation confinement, a person shall have access to a tablet or device that allows such person to make phone calls outside of the facility and to medical staff in the facility. (i) The Department must serve meals and snacks to people in custody while in de-escalation confinement at or about the same time as, and be of the same quality and quantity of, the meals served to people in the general population. (j) The Department shall not hold someone in de-escalation confinement for longer than the minimum amount of time required for the Department to conduct an assessment and determine the person’s subsequent placement. A person shall be removed from de-escalation confinement immediately following when such person has sufficiently gained control and no longer poses a significant risk of imminent serious physical injury to themselves or others. In addition, the following time limitations apply: (1) The Department may not place a person in de-escalation confinement for more than four (4) hours immediately following the incident precipitating placement in such confinement, more than four (4) hours in any twenty-four-hour period, or more than twelve (12) hours in any seven-day period. The Department shall document every placement on a form designed for this purpose, which shall specify the reasons for the placement, why it was necessary to de-escalate an immediate conflict, and the person’s length of time in de-escalation confinement. (2) After holding a person in de-escalation confinement for two (2) hours, the Department must reauthorize the confinement through written approval up the Department’s security chain of command. The reauthorization approval shall consider the reasons therefor, including what attempts were made by the Department to transfer the person in custody out of de-escalation confinement after two (2) hours. (3) For the purposes of compliance with the time limitations in this section, the calculation of the length of a person in custody’s de-escalation confinement shall begin immediately following the incident precipitating such person’s placement in such confinement until the individual is transported to a newly assigned housing area. This shall include the time the person spends in any other subsequent de-escalation confinement cell or area prior to rehousing. (k) Pursuant to the provisions in 40 RCNY § 6-07 and subdivision (g) of § 9-167 of the Administrative Code, the Department may transfer a person from de-escalation confinement to pre-hearing temporary restrictive housing. (l) The Department shall maintain an updated list of the specific areas designated to be used for de-escalation purposes at each facility. The Department shall share this list with the Board and update the Board as soon as changes are made. (m) The Department shall provide the Board with a quarterly public report with information related to its use of de-escalation confinement for each month in the reporting period, including but not limited to (1) the number of placements in de-escalation confinement, overall and by reason for placement, (2) the number whose placement lasted more than two hours, (3) the number whose placement lasted four hours, (4) the minimum, maximum, mean, and median time spent in de-escalation confinement, overall and by reason for placement, (5) the facility and locations of any units used for de-escalation confinement, and (6) any other information the Department or the Board deems relevant to the Board’s assessment of the use of de-escalation confinement in Department facilities. Metrics in the public report shall be reported in total and by facility, and disaggregated by month. The data used to produce the report shall be tracked at the individual placement level and provided to the Board in a manner that may be analyzed electronically by the Board. (n) The Board and the Department shall jointly develop the reporting templates for the report required by 40 RCNY § 6-05(m), for approval by the Board. (o) The Department shall comply with the reporting requirements set forth in § 9-167 of the Administrative Code. (Added City Record 6/9/2021, eff. 7/9/2021; amended City Record 6/28/2024, eff. 7/28/2024)

40 RCNY § 6-06 Emergency Lock-Ins.

§ 6-06 Emergency Lock-Ins. (a) Emergency lock-ins may only be used when the Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner, or another equivalent member of Department senior leadership with responsibility for the operations of security for a facility determines that such lock-in is necessary to de-escalate an emergency that poses a threat of specific, significant and imminent harm to incarcerated persons or staff. (b) Emergency lock-ins shall never be in effect longer than necessary to allow staff to investigate or avoid a serious incident, conduct searches, or restore order or safety. Emergency lock-ins may only be used when there are no less restrictive means available to address an emergency circumstance and only as a last resort after exhausting less restrictive measures. (c) The Department shall limit the scope of emergency lock-ins so that only those housing areas that must be locked down are affected and they must be lifted as soon as possible. Emergency lock-ins must be confined to as narrow an area as possible and impact as limited a number of people as possible. (d) The Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner, or another equivalent member of Department senior leadership over the operations of security shall review such lock-ins at least every hour. (e) Emergency lock-ins may not last more than four (4) hours. (f) The Department must immediately notify the Board and CHA as soon as an emergency lock-in begins, a lock-in is extended beyond a regularly scheduled lock-in period, or a lock-in reaches four (4) hours. This notification shall be in writing and include information regarding the facilities and specific housing area locations and number of people impacted. The Department may make this notification through the Department’s Incident Reporting System, or a similar system that is in place for real-time, operational reporting. (g) The Department shall immediately notify the public of all emergency lock-ins on its website or by other means with specific information about how visits, phone calls, counsel visits, or court appearances will be affected. (h) The Department shall document the locations and reason(s) for each emergency lock-in (e.g., fight, slashing, use of force, missing razor) and the objectives to be accomplished during the lock-in related to those reasons (e.g., investigate use of force, conduct searches to recover contraband) in a manner that may be analyzed electronically by the Board. (i) As long as the emergency lock-in has not lasted more than four (4) hours, when authorizing an extension of an emergency lock-in beyond a regularly scheduled lock-in period, the Department shall re-evaluate the stated reasons and objectives for the lock-in and shall document reasons as to why the lock-in must be continued (e.g., search still underway, not enough staff on post to lock out housing area). (j) The Department shall conduct visual and aural observation of every person locked in every fifteen (15) minutes and shall refer any health concerns to medical or mental health staff. The Department shall bring any person displaying any indications of any need for medical documentation, observation, or treatment to the medical clinic. DOC shall ensure timely access to medical and mental health care - particularly emergency or time-urgent medical and mental health care - during any lock-in, and must provide for other delayed or missed services as quickly as possible following an emergency lock-in. (k) Throughout an emergency lock-in, other than in a department-wide emergency lock-in or a facility emergency lock-in, each person locked in shall have access to a tablet or other device that allows the person to make phone calls both outside of the facility and to medical staff in the facility. (l) For the following services, the Department shall track and record, in a manner that may be analyzed electronically by the Board, whether services were impacted (i.e., cancelled, delayed, or not affected) due to an emergency lock-in and the number of housing areas and people affected: (1) Recreation (2) Law library (3) Visits (4) Religious services (5) Educational services (6) Sick call (7) Other Clinic services (8) Medication/pharmacy (9) Scheduled Medical and Mental Health appointments (including on- and off- Island specialty appointments) (10) Clinical rounds (11) Programming (m) If services were delayed or otherwise affected, the Department shall track and report the time each service was afforded for each housing area impacted by the emergency lock-in. (n) The Department shall provide the Board with direct access to all documentation related to emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions. (o) The Department and CHA shall issue a written directive to staff regarding the requirements of this section. The directive shall include protocols for communication and coordination between the Department and CHA during and after emergency lock-ins to facilitate the triage of necessary care by CHA, minimize disruptions to patient care, and ensure the rescheduling of medical/mental health appointments. (p) CHA shall provide the Board with a quarterly report including, but not limited to, the following data on reported emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions occurring during the reporting period, disaggregated by month: (1) Number of emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions reported to CHA by the Department, in total and disaggregated by facility; (2) Number of clinic closures during an emergency lock-in and reason for closure (e.g., clinic attending to staff injuries, no facility movement permitted), in total and disaggregated by facility; (3) Number of previously scheduled appointments missed and number of previously scheduled appointments required to be rescheduled due to an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility and service type; (4) Number of non-scheduled CHA services (wound care, etc.) missed or delayed as a result of an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility and service type; (5) Number of required clinical rounds missed, in total and disaggregated by facility and restrictive housing units affected; (6) Number of patients requesting sick call but not afforded sick call when requested, in total and disaggregated by facility; (7) Number of patients whose medication services were missed or delayed as a result of an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility; (8) Any other information the CHA or the Board deems relevant to the Board’s assessment of emergency lock-ins and their impact on access to health and mental health care. (q) The Board and CHA shall jointly develop the reporting template for the report required by 40 RCNY § 6-06(p), for approval by the Board. (r) On at least a quarterly basis, the Department shall provide the Board all emergency lock-in incident-level data tracked by the Department. The Board and the Department shall jointly develop a reporting template for transmission of this data for approval by the Board. (s) The Department shall comply with the reporting requirements set forth in § 9-167 of the Administrative Code. (Added City Record 6/9/2021, eff. 7/9/2021; amended City Record 6/28/2024, eff. 7/28/2024)

Source: City of New York, Charter, Administrative Code and Rules (American Legal Publishing XML export, codelibrary.amlegal.com)URL: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCrules/0-0-0-128974Fetched: 10/24/2026