The lawsuit alleges that inmates have been strapped to the restraint board for up to 12 hours at a time. We are particularly disturbed at the death of Michael Oliver Lewis, an inmate with mental health problems, who died approximately three hours after being strapped to the board at the Center in May 1997, and would be grateful to be informed of the cause of his death. We are also disturbed that a 17 year-old inmate was on one occasion strapped to the restraint board. Amnesty International acknowledges that there may be occasions in which it is necessary to restrain prisoners for their own protection as a short-term emergency measure. The APHA standards also provide that restraint orders should be reviewed by a psychiatrist every two hours and must be automatically terminated after four hours unless renewed, with a maximum limit of eight hours.
Some jurisdictions specify considerably lesser limits.
We understand that the present policy governing the use of restraints in El Paso County allows for use of the restraint board to be used as a first option for the full restraint of an inmate, and provides no time-limit, despite the recognized health risks involved in immobilizing prisoners in restraints for long periods. Amnesty International understands that the County proposes to introduce the restraint chair as an alternative to the restraint board. While we welcome the temporary moratorium that has been imposed on the use of the board, we would like to take this opportunity to express our concern regarding the restraint chair. We are therefore concerned about its potential for misuse. The initial decision to place people in the chair is often taken by guards without appropriate medical evaluation.