Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 31 - Public Safety › Part 9 - REGULATION REGARDING THE LICENSURE OF JUVENILE DETENTION FACILITIES › Chapter 1 - General Application of Regulations, Administration And Management, Training And Supervision of Staff › Rule 31-9-1.3 - Definitions

Current through June 25, 2024
The following terms shall have the following meaning for
				  purposes of this Chapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
1. "Abuse" means causing, or allowing
				to be caused, upon the youth, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, emotional
				abuse, mental injury, nonaccidental physical injury, or other maltreatment.
				Discipline in a manner consistent with these standards is not considered to be
				abuse.
2. "Assessment" means a
				thorough evaluation of a youth's classification, physical health, mental
				health, or educational functioning as required under these standards.
3. "Auxiliary aids or services"
				means the accommodations necessary to afford youth with a recognized disability
				under federal or state law an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy
				the benefits of, the services, programs, and activities of the facility.
4. "Belly belts or chains" means
				any mechanical restraint that wraps around the youth's waist or abdominal area.
5. "Body cavity" means a rectal or
				vaginal cavity.
6. "Body cavity
				search" means a search of a body cavity.
7. "Chemical agents" means a chemical
				substance that induces pain to control, restrain, or incapacitate a person.
8. "Conflict management" means
				facility-approved practices for stabilizing a crisis situation.
9. "Contraband" means any object or substance
				that is unlawful to possess under state laws or prohibited by the policies of
				the facility.
10. "Corporal
				punishment" means the willful infliction of, or willfully causing the
				infliction of, physical pain on a youth for the purpose of discipline.
11. "Crisis intervention" means
				facility-approved practices for stabilizing a crisis situation.
12. "Crisis management" means
				facility-approved practices for identifying, addressing, and resolving a crisis
				situation.
13. "De-escalation
				techniques" means facility-approved strategies for defusing potentially
				dangerous or disruptive behavior.
14. "Exigent circumstances" means temporary
				and unforeseeable circumstances that require immediate action in order to
				address a serious threat to the security of a facility.
15. "Facility" means a juvenile detention
				facility.
16. "Facility
				administrator" means the principal official of the facility.
17. "Facility administrator's designee" means
				the person designated by the facility administrator to act officially on his or
				her behalf.
18. "Facility staff"
				means all employees of the facility who are under the supervision of the
				facility administrator.
19.
				"Guardian" means a person appointed by a court to make decisions regarding the
				support, care, education, health, or welfare of a youth.
20. "Grievance log" means an official record
				of grievances.
21. "Grievance
				procedures" mean the processes required under these standards for filing,
				resolving, and recording grievances about any aspect of the facility, including
				medical and mental health services.
22. "Group punishment" means the imposition
				of discipline on the whole population of youth or a group of youth for the
				misbehavior of only one youth or a few youths.
23. "Health authority" means the individual,
				governmental entity or health care contractor responsible for the facility's
				health care services, including arrangements for all levels of health care and
				the ensuring of quality and accessibility of all health services provided to
				detained youth.
24. "Health
				facility" means any licensed facility that is organized, maintained, and
				operated for the diagnosis, care, prevention, or treatment of medical illnesses
				or needs.
25. "Health-trained
				staff" means facility staff members trained by a qualified medical professional
				in limited aspects of health care or gathering of health information.
26. "Hogtying" means the practice
				of placing a youth on a bed, floor, or other surface and securing the youth's
				hands to his or her feet.
27.
				"Individualized behavior plan" means a written plan developed by facility staff
				members for addressing the behavioral or safety concerns of a particular youth.
28. "Informed consent" means that
				a qualified health professional has informed the youth and/or the youth's
				parent or guardian, in accordance with the law and in a developmentally
				appropriate manner, of the diagnostic and treatment options, risk assessment
				and prognosis, and of the right to refuse treatment, and that the youth and the
				youth's parent or guardian have consented in writing to the recommended
				treatment.
29. "Isolation" means
				confining a youth in a room by himself or herself for current and disruptive
				behavior that is dangerous to the youth or others or that creates an imminent
				risk of serious property damage.
30. "Juvenile detention facility" means a
				juvenile detention center authorized to hold youth for five or more days. The
				term "juvenile detention facility" does not include state-operated facilities
				or temporary holding facilities.
31. "Management of assaultive behavior" means
				facility-approved practices for controlling behavior that is dangerous to the
				youth or others or that creates an imminent risk of serious property damage.
32. "Mechanical restraints" means
				handcuffs, leg shackles, leg irons, belly belts, belly chains, or other
				restraint devices used to restrict a youth's free movement of limbs or
				appendages.
33. "Mental health
				authority" means the licensed entity that is charged with the responsibility
				for administering mental health services to youth in the facility.
34. "Monitoring log" means the official
				record of detailed entries by staff members whenever monitoring records are
				required under these standards to be made and preserved.
35. "One-on-one crisis intervention and
				observation" means individual counseling and continual face to face monitoring
				for any youth who is in isolation.
36. "Operational capacity" means the maximum
				number of youths that a facility may safely and effectively accommodate under
				its current funding levels, staffing levels, and existing programs and
				services.
37. "Pain compliance
				techniques" means pain rendering methods of a non-defensive nature to control,
				restrain, or incapacitate a youth.
38. "Pat-down search" means an open-hand
				frisking or patting down of a person's outer clothing for the purpose of
				discovering contraband.
39.
				"Physical body cavity search" means physical intrusion into a body cavity for
				the purpose of discovering contraband.
40. "Physical force techniques" mean
				facility-approved defensive methods that a staff member may use when a youth's
				behavior threatens imminent harm to the youth or others or serious property
				destruction.
41. "Physician" means
				any person licensed by the State of Mississippi to practice medicine in any of
				its branches.
42. "Primary
				language" means the language that the youth is most comfortable speaking or
				using when communicating to others.
43. "Programming" means a comprehensive
				multi-disciplinary set of activities for meeting the rehabilitative,
				educational, recreational, cultural, and religious needs of the youth in the
				facility.
44. "Qualified health
				professional" or "QHP" means a licensed or certified professional who is
				engaged in the delivery of health services and who meets all applicable federal
				or state requirements to provide their professional services.
45. "Qualified mental health professional"
				means an individual with at least a master's degree in mental health or related
				fields and who has either a professional license or a Department of Mental
				Health credential as a mental health therapist.
46. "Reasonable suspicion" means suspicion
				based on specific and articulable facts that, when taken together with rational
				inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant action.
47. "Restraint review committee" means the
				committee responsible for regularly reading and assessing all force or
				restraint incidents and the policies and training on the use of force or
				restraints.
48. "Room confinement"
				means a disciplinary sanction of confining a youth to a room for violating a
				rule.
49. "Secured grievance box"
				means a locked container for depositing grievance forms and envelopes.
50. "Sexual abuse" means:
a. Sexual abuse of a youth by another youth,
				which includes any of the following acts, if the victim does not consent, is
				coerced into such act by overt or implied threats of violence or is unable to
				consent or refuse.
i. Contact between the
				penis and the vulva or the penis and the anus, including penetration, however
				slight;
ii. Contact between the
				mouth and the penis, vulva, or anus;
iii. Penetration of the anal or genital
				opening of another person, however slight, by a hand, finger, object, or other
				instrument; and