Name: Michigan bans using dangerous restraints on children at youth centers after teen's death
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Michigan bans using dangerous restraints on children at youth centers after teen's death

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Detroit Free Press Months after a Black teen died as a result of staff at a Michigan youth center pinning&nbsp;him to the floor for throwing a sandwich, state health officials have banned the use of similar dangerous restraints.&nbsp;The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced stricter rules for how staff at state-licensed youth institutions can physically restrain children. The reform&nbsp;comes after the death of 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks, who went into cardiac arrest after at least restrained him in late April.&nbsp;The department is immediately prohibiting the use of prone restraints, or pinning&nbsp;a child face-down, as well as any other restraint&nbsp;that restricts a child's breathing. If a child must be restrained in some other fashion, the&nbsp;require timely notification to families and MDHHS when this force&nbsp;is used.&nbsp;The changes affect facilities that house children&nbsp;in the state foster care and juvenile justice systems. After Fredericks' case, MDHHS Director Robert Gordon said the department sought the input of the&nbsp;Annie E. Casey Foundation and other national experts&nbsp;on&nbsp;how to avoid needless deaths and improve its system of institutional care."The change here is about more than addressing particular bad actors,"&nbsp;Gordon said on a call Thursday with reporters. "It is about transforming a system so that we treat the young people in institutional settings with the same compassion and care that we want for our own children."&nbsp;More:More:Fredericks was one of roughly 125 teens at the for-profit Lakeside Academy. The facility offers residential health and behavioral programming for youths. Fredericks had been a ward of the state for several years, following his mother’s death when his father was incarcerated, the Associated Press reported.Staff restrained Fredericks on April 29 after he reportedly threw a sandwich.&nbsp; Employees placed body weight on Fredericks for about 12 minutes as the teen yelled that he could not breathe, filed by Fredericks’ family. shows&nbsp;several men appear to hold down Fredericks’ arms and legs while others sit or lay atop his chest and abdomen.The teen died two&nbsp;days later at a Kalamazoo hospital.The Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner's office confirmed Fredericks' death was a homicide caused by asphyxia, the&nbsp;AP.&nbsp;"In my opinion, the complications of him being restrained, on the ground in a supine position by multiple people, is ultimately what led to his death," said Dr. Ted Brown, who performed the autopsy.In June, Lakeside Academy lost its contract with the state to provide services for children in the foster or juvenile justice systems. Fredericks’ family filed their lawsuit later that month, days before three staff members involved in Fredericks’ death were criminally charged.Attorneys Geoffrey Fieger and Jonathan Marko, who represent Fredericks' family, thanked health officials&nbsp;but bemoaned that it took a deadly act to prompt&nbsp;change.&nbsp;"Mr. Fieger and I applaud the State for taking action to ban the use of restraints, but we wish it would not have taken the death of Cornelius to spur action," Marko said in an emailed statement."Countless children have been injured or killed as a result of these types of restraints and they are often used as way to punish children and should not be used."The Michigan Center for Youth Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for youth involved in the justice system and alternatives to confinement, also appreciated the restrictions on dangerous restraints.&nbsp;"We applaud the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for taking swift, aggressive action to end a horrible and harmful practice,” Mary King, the executive director for MCYJ, said in a statement.The&nbsp;emergency rules are temporary and will remain in effect for six months. The MCYJ called for the changes to be codified.JooYeun Chang, executive director of the MDHHS Children's Services Agency, said the department missed some "early warning signs" when Lakeside violated rules in the past.&nbsp;Following recommendations from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the department will increase its site visits and reviews of youth facilities from once a year to&nbsp;quarterly.&nbsp;After Fredericks’ death, the department identified 76 facilities that had one serious incident or repeated incidents related to safety in the past few years. Chang said MDHHS is taking additional disciplinary action and providing technical assistance in those cases.She said the department will need to create a complaint line or another way for youth&nbsp;in residential placement to raise concerns.&nbsp;"Until our facilities are fully trained on how to de-escalate, how to prevent the need for restraints, we know there is a risk of restraints that will happen that we don’t know about," she said on the call with reporters.&nbsp;Under the new rules, facilities that use a restraint on a child are required to&nbsp;notify the youth's family within 12 hours and alert MDHHS&nbsp;within 24 hours.&nbsp;Chang said the required that one staff member review the use of a restraint within 48 hours. Going forward, a&nbsp;more rigorous debriefing process will involve staff, supervisors, witnesses, the child who was restrained and their family within 24 hours.&nbsp;There are 876 children in residential placement settings in Michigan, an 18% decrease from last year, Chang said.&nbsp;Nationally, teens of color are more likely to be placed in institutions and group settings when they enter foster care, said Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez, vice president for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Systems Innovation.Michigan health officials said they are working to address the disparity.&nbsp;"Much as George Floyd's death triggered our society to grapple with institutional racism in policing, this young man's death forces us to grapple with institutional racism in our child welfare system," Gordon said. "... In our child welfare system, we have an acute responsibility to do all we can to keep families, particularly Black families, safely intact."Reporters Kristen Jordan Shamus and Georgea Kovanis contributed to this story.&nbsp;Contact Angie Jackson: ; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: .&nbsp;Contact Dave Boucher at dboucher@freepress.com or 313-938-4591. Follow him on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.&nbsp;

Detroit Free Press Months after a Black teen died as a result of staff at a Michigan youth center pinning&nbsp;him to the floor for throwing a sandwich, state health officials have banned the use of similar dangerous restraints.&nbsp;The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced stricter rules for how staff at state-licensed youth institutions can physically restrain children. The reform&nbsp;comes after the death of 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks, who went into cardiac arrest after at least restrained him in late April.&nbsp;The department is immediately...

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The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primarily serves Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Washtenaw, and Monroe counties.  The Free Press is also the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, which also publishes USA Today. The Free Press has received ten Pulitzer Prizes and four Emmy Awards. Its motto is "On Guard for 189 Years".

Michigan bans using dangerous restraints on children at youth centers after teen's death

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