Colorado bill targets “culture of violence” at Division of Youth Corrections
New legislation would require the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections to phase out the use of straitjackets and pain-compliance techniques including knee strikes and neck pressure points, setting up a pilot program to test policies that are more therapeutic than punitive.
The bill, which also proposes renaming the system the Division of Youth Services, takes aim at the “culture of violence” described in a report released last month that said the division is unsafe for teens behind bars but also for staff. The proposal from Rep. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, focuses on creating a pilot program within the division that would lead the way in phasing out use of restraints and pain compliance techniques.
The report from the Colorado Child Safety Coalition counted 3,611 times that youth were restrained, including by handcuffs, shackles or a straitjacket called “the WRAP” in a 13-month period. The wrap, in which a youth is bound and then wrapped the length of the body, was used 253 times — more than once every other day. Colorado is one of few states that use it, researchers found.
Read full story at The Denver Post.
FILE – Colorado State Rep. Pete Lee at the state capitol on Wednesday, January 9, 2013. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)
FILE – Colorado State Rep. Pete Lee at the state capitol on Wednesday, January 9, 2013. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)