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Bridgewater State Hospital, located in southeastern Massachusetts, is a state facility housing the criminally insane and those whose sanity is being evaluated for the criminal justice system. It was established in 1855 as an almshouse. It was then used as a workhouse for inmates with short sentences who worked the surrounding farmland. It was later rebuilt in the 1880s and again in 1974. Bridgewater State Hospital currently houses 395 inmates all of whom are adult males.〔Kauffman,Kelsey:Prison Officers and their world, pg 42.Harvard Press.1988〕 The facility was the subject of the 1967 documentary ''Titicut Follies''. Bridgewater State Hospital falls under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. ==Controversy== 2014 A Civil lawsuit was settled out of court regarding a patient's declining health from abuse, namely, being excessively restrained and secluded. The particular patient had spent over 6000 hours in isolation, despite never having had been convicted of a crime. 2014 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick formally reprimanded Administration officials regarding their attempts to cover up procedural mishaps, including the use of forced restraint, that precipitated the death of a patient in 2009. Then superintendent Karin Bergeron was exposed in internal e-mails as having attempted to cover up reports of the murdered patient's death after it was ruled a homicide. 2014 The Boston Globe published an exposé on how the use of forced restraints – in which patients are bound to a table by hands and legs –increased over a 5-year period at an alarmingly high rate, in spite of the death of a patient in 2009 resulting from the use of such "four point restraints". The Department of Correction’s own Internal Affairs Unit had formally found that in 2011, facility officers Howard and Raposo had violated a procedural policy that states that guards shall never put pressure on a restrained inmate’s back. Surveillance video revealed that the two guards pushed down on a handcuffed patient’s back with force, forcing his chest toward his knees, a maneuver sometimes called “suitcasing.” According to the article:〔"In December 2013 alone, Bridgewater State Hospital, with a population that hovers around 325, held patients in seclusion and restraints for more than 13,000 hours — a rate of 1,491 hours per 1,000 patient days, vastly more than other state-run psychiatric facilities. Five Department of Mental Health facilities with about 626 in-patient beds held patients in seclusion and restraints for a total of only 135 hours in that month — 7.07 hours per 1,000 patient days."〕 2012 Fox News Boston released the security camera footage of officers strapping down a patient whose death had been ruled a homicide in 2009. (The tape's footage ) is controversial because officer Derek Howard could be seen using an illegal restraint practice. 2009 A patient was killed when improperly restrained. (The man's family was awarded $3 million in damages to settle a lawsuit. ) At that time Boston Governor Deval Patrick called forth investigation into the practices at Bridgewater. 2008 George A. Billadeau, a police Sergeant at the facility, was the subject of a formal complaint that accused him of making a racial slur to a patient 2007, The (Disability Law Center ), a human rights advocacy firm in Boston, sued Bridgewater State Hospital over illegally restraining a patient. 2007 A patient committed suicide by hanging himself in the showers while there on a 30-day court evaluation when BSH staff failed to prevent it. 2004 The family of murdered inmate William Mosher planned to sue the state and BSH for $150 million for failing to protect their son. 2004 William Mosher Jr., a patient who suffered from bipolar disorder, was murdered in his room by a fellow inmate when the facility failed to protect him by keeping his enemy away. 1999 (Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services ) served and won a successful lawsuit against Bridgewater for an officer throwing acid in a patient's face. Until the lawsuit, the DOC and BSH had dropped the investigation mid way. 1989 ABC news Nightline broadcast a TV news special outlining mistreament off the patients at Bridgewater State Hospital 1987 After 8 patient deaths in a year, the New York Times did an exposé on Bridgewater State Hospital and its poor treatment of patients. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bridgewater State Hospital」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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