§ 401. Establishment of programs inside correctional facilities. 1.
The commissioner, in cooperation with the commissioner of mental health,
shall establish programs, including but not limited to residential
mental health treatment units, in such correctional facilities as he or
she may deem appropriate for the treatment of mentally ill incarcerated
individuals confined in state correctional facilities who are in need of
psychiatric services but who do not require hospitalization for the
treatment of mental illness. Incarcerated individuals with serious
mental illness shall receive therapy and programming in settings that
are appropriate to their clinical needs while maintaining the safety and
security of the facility.

The conditions and services provided in the residential mental health
treatment units shall be at least comparable to those in all residential
rehabilitation units, and all residential mental health treatment units
shall be in compliance with all provisions of paragraphs (i), (j), (k),
and (l) of subdivision six of section one hundred thirty-seven of this
chapter. Residential mental health treatment units that are either
residential mental health unit models or behavioral health unit models
shall also be in compliance with all provisions of paragraph (m) of
subdivision six of section one hundred thirty-seven of this chapter.

The residential mental health treatment units shall also provide the
additional mental health treatment, services, and programming delineated
in this section. The administration and operation of programs
established pursuant to this section shall be the joint responsibility
of the commissioner of mental health and the commissioner. The
professional mental health care personnel, and their administrative and
support staff, for such programs shall be employees of the office of
mental health. All other personnel shall be employees of the department.

2. (a) (i) In exceptional circumstances, a mental health clinician, or
the highest ranking facility security supervisor in consultation with a
mental health clinician who has interviewed the incarcerated individual,
may determine that an incarcerated individual's access to out-of-cell
therapeutic programming and/or mental health treatment in a residential
mental health treatment unit presents an unacceptable risk to the safety
of incarcerated individuals or staff. Such determination shall be
documented in writing and such incarcerated individual may be removed to
a residential rehabilitation unit that is not a residential mental
health treatment unit where alternative mental health treatment and/or
other therapeutic programming, as determined by a mental health
clinician, shall be provided.

(ii) Any determination to restrict out-of-cell therapeutic programming
and/or mental health treatment shall be reviewed at least every fourteen
days by the joint case management committee or, if no such committee is
available, by the treatment team assigned to the incarcerated
individual's residential mental health treatment unit.

(iii) The determination whether to restrict out-of-cell therapeutic
programming and/or mental health treatment shall take into account the
incarcerated individual's mental condition and any safety and security
concerns that would be posed by the incarcerated individual's access to
such out-of-cell therapeutic programming. The joint case management
committee or treatment team shall recommend that the incarcerated
individual shall have access to out-of-cell therapeutic programming
and/or mental health treatment unless in exceptional circumstances such
access would pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of the incarcerated
individual or other persons. Such recommendation shall be reviewed by
the facility superintendent, and if the superintendent makes a
determination not to accept such recommendation, the matter shall be
referred to the joint central office review committee for resolution.
Such resolution shall be made no later than twenty-one days after the
imposition of the restriction.

(b) Incarcerated individuals in a residential mental health treatment
unit shall receive property, services and privileges similar to
incarcerated individuals confined in the general prison population,
provided however, the department may impose general limitations on the
quantity and type of property all incarcerated individuals on the unit
are permitted to have in their cells and incarcerated individual access
to programs that are more restrictive than for general population
incarcerated individuals in order to maintain security and order on the
unit. Further, in consultation with a mental health clinician, the
department may make an individual determination to impose restrictions
on property, services or privileges for an incarcerated individual on
the unit for therapeutic and/or security reasons which are not
inconsistent with the incarcerated individual's mental health needs. If
any such restrictions on property, services or privileges are imposed on
a particular incarcerated individual, they shall be documented in
writing and shall be reviewed by the joint case management committee not
less than every thirty days. A disciplinary sanction of restricted diet
shall not be imposed on any incarcerated individual who is housed in a
residential mental health treatment unit.

3. Misbehavior reports will not be issued to incarcerated individuals
with serious mental illness for refusing treatment or medication,
however, an incarcerated individual may be subject to the disciplinary
process for refusing to go to the location where treatment is provided
or medication is dispensed. In addition, there will be a presumption
against imposition and pursuit of disciplinary charges for self-harming
behavior and threats of self-harming behavior, including related charges
for the same behaviors, such as destruction of state property, except in
exceptional circumstances.

4. A disciplinary sanction imposed on an incarcerated individual
requiring confinement to a cell or room shall continue to run while the
incarcerated individual is placed in residential mental health treatment
in a residential mental health unit model or a behavioral health unit
model. Such disciplinary sanction shall be reviewed by the joint case
management committee or, if no such committee is available, by the
treatment team assigned to the incarcerated individual's residential
mental health treatment unit at least once every three months to
determine whether based upon the incarcerated individual's mental health
status and safety and security concerns, the incarcerated individual's
disciplinary sanction should be reduced and/or the incarcerated
individual should be transferred to a less restrictive setting. Nothing
in this subdivision shall be deemed to preclude the department from
granting reductions of disciplinary sanctions to incarcerated
individuals in other residential mental health treatment unit models.

5. (a) An incarcerated individual in a residential mental health
treatment unit shall not be sanctioned with segregated confinement for
misconduct on the unit, or removed from the unit and placed in
segregated confinement or a residential rehabilitation unit, except in
exceptional circumstances where such incarcerated individual's conduct
poses a significant and unreasonable risk to the safety of incarcerated
individuals or staff, or to the security of the facility and he or she
has been found to have committed an act or acts defined in subparagraph
(ii) of paragraph (k) of subdivision six of section one hundred
thirty-seven of this chapter. Further, in the event that such a sanction
is imposed, an incarcerated individual shall not be required to begin
serving such sanction until the reviews required by paragraph (b) of
this subdivision have been completed; provided, however that in
extraordinary circumstances where an incarcerated individual's conduct
poses an immediate unacceptable threat to the safety of incarcerated
individuals or staff, or to the security of the facility an incarcerated
individual may be immediately moved to a residential rehabilitation
unit. The determination that an immediate transfer to a residential
rehabilitation unit is necessary shall be made by the highest ranking
facility security supervisor in consultation with a mental health
clinician.

(b) The joint case management committee shall review any disciplinary
disposition imposing a sanction of segregated confinement at its next
scheduled meeting. Such review shall take into account the incarcerated
individual's mental condition and safety and security concerns. The
joint case management committee may only thereafter recommend the
removal of the incarcerated individual in exceptional circumstances
where the incarcerated individual commits an act or acts defined in
subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (k) of subdivision six of section one
hundred thirty-seven of this chapter and poses a significant and
unreasonable risk to the safety of incarcerated individuals or staff or
to the security of the facility. In the event that the incarcerated
individual was immediately moved to segregated confinement, the joint
case management committee may recommend that the incarcerated individual
continue to serve such sanction only in exceptional circumstances where
the incarcerated individual commits an act or acts defined in
subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (k) of subdivision six of section one
hundred thirty-seven of this chapter and poses a significant and
unreasonable risk to the safety of incarcerated individuals or staff or
to the security of the facility. If a determination is made that the
incarcerated individual shall not be required to serve all or any part
of the segregated confinement sanction, the joint case management
committee may instead recommend that a less restrictive sanction should
be imposed. The recommendations made by the joint case management
committee under this paragraph shall be documented in writing and
referred to the superintendent for review and if the superintendent
disagrees, the matter shall be referred to the joint central office
review committee for a final determination. The administrative process
described in this paragraph shall be completed within fourteen days. If
the result of such process is that an incarcerated individual who was
immediately transferred to a residential rehabilitation unit should be
removed from such unit, such removal shall occur as soon as practicable,
and in no event longer than seventy-two hours from the completion of the
administrative process.

6. The department shall ensure that the curriculum for new correction
officers, and other new department staff who will regularly work in
programs providing mental health treatment for incarcerated individuals,
shall include at least eight hours of training about the types and
symptoms of mental illnesses, the goals of mental health treatment, the
prevention of suicide and training in how to effectively and safely
manage incarcerated individuals with mental illness. Such training may
be provided by the office of mental health or the justice center for the
protection of people with special needs. All department staff who are
transferring into a residential mental health treatment unit shall
receive a minimum of eight additional hours of such training, and eight
hours of annual training as long as they work in such a unit. All
security, program services, mental health and medical staff with direct
incarcerated individual contact shall receive training each year
regarding identification of, and care for, incarcerated individuals with
mental illnesses. The department shall provide additional training on
these topics on an ongoing basis as it deems appropriate. All staff
working in a residential mental health treatment unit shall also receive
the training mandated in paragraph (n) of subdivision six of section one
hundred thirty-seven of this chapter.