(a) Emergency lock-ins may only be used when the Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner, or another equivalent member of Department senior leadership with responsibility for the operations of security for a facility determines that such lock-in is necessary to de-escalate an emergency that poses a threat of specific, significant and imminent harm to incarcerated persons or staff.
(b) Emergency lock-ins shall never be in effect longer than necessary to allow staff to investigate or avoid a serious incident, conduct searches, or restore order or safety. Emergency lock-ins may only be used when there are no less restrictive means available to address an emergency circumstance and only as a last resort after exhausting less restrictive measures.
(c) The Department shall limit the scope of emergency lock-ins so that only those housing areas that must be locked down are affected and they must be lifted as soon as possible. Emergency lock-ins must be confined to as narrow an area as possible and impact as limited a number of people as possible.
(d) The Commissioner, a Deputy Commissioner, or another equivalent member of Department senior leadership over the operations of security shall review such lock-ins at least every hour.
(e) Emergency lock-ins may not last more than four (4) hours.
(f) The Department must immediately notify the Board and CHA as soon as an emergency lock-in begins, a lock-in is extended beyond a regularly scheduled lock-in period, or a lock-in reaches four (4) hours. This notification shall be in writing and include information regarding the facilities and specific housing area locations and number of people impacted. The Department may make this notification through the Department’s Incident Reporting System, or a similar system that is in place for real-time, operational reporting.
(g) The Department shall immediately notify the public of all emergency lock-ins on its website or by other means with specific information about how visits, phone calls, counsel visits, or court appearances will be affected.
(h) The Department shall document the locations and reason(s) for each emergency lock-in (e.g., fight, slashing, use of force, missing razor) and the objectives to be accomplished during the lock-in related to those reasons (e.g., investigate use of force, conduct searches to recover contraband) in a manner that may be analyzed electronically by the Board.
(i) As long as the emergency lock-in has not lasted more than four (4) hours, when authorizing an extension of an emergency lock-in beyond a regularly scheduled lock-in period, the Department shall re-evaluate the stated reasons and objectives for the lock-in and shall document reasons as to why the lock-in must be continued (e.g., search still underway, not enough staff on post to lock out housing area).
(j) The Department shall conduct visual and aural observation of every person locked in every fifteen (15) minutes and shall refer any health concerns to medical or mental health staff. The Department shall bring any person displaying any indications of any need for medical documentation, observation, or treatment to the medical clinic. DOC shall ensure timely access to medical and mental health care - particularly emergency or time-urgent medical and mental health care - during any lock-in, and must provide for other delayed or missed services as quickly as possible following an emergency lock-in.
(k) Throughout an emergency lock-in, other than in a department-wide emergency lock-in or a facility emergency lock-in, each person locked in shall have access to a tablet or other device that allows the person to make phone calls both outside of the facility and to medical staff in the facility.
(l) For the following services, the Department shall track and record, in a manner that may be analyzed electronically by the Board, whether services were impacted (i.e., cancelled, delayed, or not affected) due to an emergency lock-in and the number of housing areas and people affected:
(1) Recreation
(2) Law library
(3) Visits
(4) Religious services
(5) Educational services
(6) Sick call
(7) Other Clinic services
(8) Medication/pharmacy
(9) Scheduled Medical and Mental Health appointments (including on- and off- Island specialty appointments)
(10) Clinical rounds
(11) Programming
(m) If services were delayed or otherwise affected, the Department shall track and report the time each service was afforded for each housing area impacted by the emergency lock-in.
(n) The Department shall provide the Board with direct access to all documentation related to emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions.
(o) The Department and CHA shall issue a written directive to staff regarding the requirements of this section. The directive shall include protocols for communication and coordination between the Department and CHA during and after emergency lock-ins to facilitate the triage of necessary care by CHA, minimize disruptions to patient care, and ensure the rescheduling of medical/mental health appointments.
(p) CHA shall provide the Board with a quarterly report including, but not limited to, the following data on reported emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions occurring during the reporting period, disaggregated by month:
(1) Number of emergency lock-ins and lock-in extensions reported to CHA by the Department, in total and disaggregated by facility;
(2) Number of clinic closures during an emergency lock-in and reason for closure (e.g., clinic attending to staff injuries, no facility movement permitted), in total and disaggregated by facility;
(3) Number of previously scheduled appointments missed and number of previously scheduled appointments required to be rescheduled due to an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility and service type;
(4) Number of non-scheduled CHA services (wound care, etc.) missed or delayed as a result of an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility and service type;
(5) Number of required clinical rounds missed, in total and disaggregated by facility and restrictive housing units affected;
(6) Number of patients requesting sick call but not afforded sick call when requested, in total and disaggregated by facility;
(7) Number of patients whose medication services were missed or delayed as a result of an emergency lock-in, in total and disaggregated by facility;
(8) Any other information the CHA or the Board deems relevant to the Board’s assessment of emergency lock-ins and their impact on access to health and mental health care.
(q) The Board and CHA shall jointly develop the reporting template for the report required by 40 RCNY § 6-06(p), for approval by the Board.
(r) On at least a quarterly basis, the Department shall provide the Board all emergency lock-in incident-level data tracked by the Department. The Board and the Department shall jointly develop a reporting template for transmission of this data for approval by the Board.
(s) The Department shall comply with the reporting requirements set forth in § 9-167 of the Administrative Code.
(Added City Record 6/9/2021, eff. 7/9/2021; amended City Record 6/28/2024, eff. 7/28/2024)