findings and legal conclusions binding on, or admissible in, any court, and nothing in this Notice should be construed as such. Accordingly, this Notice is not intended to be admissible evidence and does not create any legal rights or obligations. Consistent with the statutory requirements of CRIPA, this Notice identifies the Department’s conclusions with respect to multiple constitutional violations, the facts supporting those conclusions, and the minimum remedial measures necessary to address the identified deficiencies. Specifically, the Department provides notice of the following identified conditions: • MDOC fails to provide constitutionally adequate supervision to prisoners in mental health crisis. MDOC prisoners on mental health (or suicide) watch face substantial risk of serious harm because MDOC staff fail to remove instruments they use to commit acts of self-harm. In part, these harms occur because MDOC lacks clear and uniform policies that contribute to inadequate supervision of prisoners in mental health crisis. This is further compounded by MDOC’s failure to provide appropriate training to security staff on how to supervise and protect prisoners from engaging in self-harm. Despite being on notice of the substantial risks of harm facing prisoners in crisis, MDOC is not adequately supervising prisoners to prevent current and future harm. • MDOC fails to provide adequate mental health care to prisoners in mental health crisis. During a time when prisoners are most in need of treatment, MDOC fails to properly treat suicidal prisoners and prisoners who self-harm. And when treatment must entail more than segregation, MDOC instead places prisoners in segregated restrictive housing.1 • MDOC’s use of prolonged mental health watch under restrictive housing conditions, including its failure to provide adequate mental health care, violates the constitutional rights of prisoners in mental health crisis. MDOC’s mental health watch involves restrictive, isolating, and unnecessarily harsh conditions. It is restrictive housing. MDOC subjects prisoners who are in mental health crisis to restrictive housing Restrictive housing, sometimes referred to as solitary confinement, segregation, or isolation, is any type of detentio 1 n that involves three basic elements: removal from the general prisoner population, whether voluntary or involuntary; placement in a locked room or cell, whether alone or with another prisoner; and inability to leave the room or cell for the vast majority of the day, typically 22 hours or more. Porter v. Clarke, 290 F. Supp. 2d 518, 528 (E.D. Va. 2018) (citing U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Report and Recommendations Concerning the Use of Restrictive Housing 3 (Jan. 2016)). See Davis v. Ayala, 576 U.S. 257, 135 S. Ct. 2187, 2208 (2015) (Kennedy, J., concurring) (referring to the “usual pattern” of solitary confinement as being housed in “a windowless cell no larger than a typical parking spot for 23 hours a day; and in the one hour when [a prisoner] leaves it, he is allowed little or no opportunity for conversation or interaction with anyone”); Wilkinson v. Austin, 545 U.S. 209, 214, 223-24 (2005) (describing restrictive housing as limiting h uman contact for 23 hours per day). 1 for prolonged periods of time, which places them at a substantial risk of serious harm. For instance, during a 13-month period between July 2018 and August 2019, MDOC held 106 prisoners experiencing a mental health crisis on mental health watch for 14 consecutive days or longer. Because mental health watch is so restrictive and isolating, MDOC policy states that prisoners should only be on mental health watch for a maximum of four days. Contrary to this standard, 51 of those prisoners remained on menta
Same source, country, and finding where possible.