§ 2-04 Treatment.
RCNY § 2-04
(a)Policy. Adequate mental health care is to be provided to inmates in an environment which facilitates care and treatment, provides for maximum observation, reduces the risk of suicide, and is minimally stressful. Inmates under the care of mental health services, if in all other respects qualified and eligible shall be entitled to the same rights and privileges as every other inmate.
(b)Criteria of adequacy.
(1)The Department of Health shall develop written criteria to be approved by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services defining in accordance with current professional standards the mental health staff, supplies and equipment necessary to provide adequate mental health care.
(2)The Departments of Health and Correction shall develop written criteria to be approved by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services defining in accordance with current professional standards the space necessary to provide adequate and appropriate housing and treatment of inmates under the care of mental health services.
(3)No later than ninety days from the effective date of these standards, the written criteria shall be submitted to the Board of Correction for promulgation as an amendment to these standards.
(c)Programs.
(4)There shall be facilities appropriate for the observation, evaluation and treatment of acute psychiatric episodes.
(5)Where required, an inmate shall be transferred to a municipal hospital prison ward in accordance with New York State Correction Law §§ 402 and 508.
(6)Inmates identified as developmentally disabled shall be evaluated within seventy-two hours and mental health services staff shall make a recommendation to the Department of Correction as to whether such developmental disability makes it necessary for the inmate to be placed in special housing or otherwise separated from the general inmate population: (i) inmates who suffer from developmental disabilities shall be housed in areas sufficient to ensure their safety; (ii) if it is determined by mental health services that an inmate's developmental disability makes it clinically contraindicated that the inmate be housed in a correctional facility, then the Department of Correction shall immediately notify the court and a written notice shall be filed in the inmate's court papers.
(7)The Departments of Health and Correction shall use mechanisms approved by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services to identify inmates who are suffering from drug addiction or the disease of alcoholism. Inmates so identified shall be referred to available programs approved by the Departments of Correction and Health. Detoxification shall take place in a setting appropriate to the level of care required.
(d)Informed consent. Except as otherwise provided herein, mental health treatment may be administered only upon the informed consent of the inmate after a disclosure of the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment in accordance with good clinical practice. The Departments of Health and Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services shall develop procedures for the implementation of this section, which shall include the use of a written form to document the informed consent of the inmate.
(e)Right to refuse treatment. The city may not require treatment of an inmate without the inmate's consent unless, in an emergency, that person, by reason of mental disability or mental illness, poses a clear and present danger of serious physical injury to self or others. Then and only then may an inmate be examined, treated or medicated against the inmate's will, subject to the following conditions: (1) the attending physician shall use only those measures which in his or her best professional judgment are deemed appropriate in response to the emergency; (2) these measures may be used only with a written medical order; (3) these measures may be used only with adequate explanation in the inmate's chart by the physician responsible detailing the length of the period of observation, the inmate's condition, the threat the inmate poses and the specific reasons for the specific intervention proposed; (4) no order to treat an inmate against the inmate's will shall be valid for longer than twenty-four hours, without review and renewal and appropriate notation in the inmate's medical records; (5) the Departments of Correction and Health shall develop procedures to be approved by the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services for the implementation of this subdivision including the use of a written form to document an inmate's refusal to consent to a particular examination, procedure or medication.
