Texas Juvenile Justice Department Rule §351.46–Restraint Chair

Certain criteria govern the use of restraint chairs in short-term juvenile detention facilities in Texas, including the following:

• The only type of restraint chair that the juvenile board has approved for use in a juvenile facility is a professionally manufactured device.
• The only occasion in which a restraint chair can be used is when there is a threat of self-injury or harm to others when an inmate is displaying extremely disruptive or aggressive behavior. In addition, it has been determined that other approved techniques for restraint are either ineffective or inappropriate in controlling the behavior of the inmate.
• Certain actions involving a restraint chair can only be conducted by a detention officer or juvenile probation officer with the proper training, those actions being:
  • Securing a resident in a restraint chair; and
  • Providing the supervision of an inmate who is in a restraint chair.
• Every 10 minutes, a detention officer or juvenile probation officer must conduct a blood circulation check on the inmate to ensure that circulation to the extremities has not been cut off.
• The following are guidelines for an inmate’s length of confinement in a restraint chair:
  • As soon as the inmate or resident is no longer behaving in a manner that threatens self-harm or harm to others and the inmate can be reasonably controlled by jail staff, the inmate will be released from the restraint chair;
  • Every 10 minutes, a resident’s removal from the restraint chair shall be considered; and
  • One hour is the maximum confinement time of an inmate in a restraint chair, though the administrator of the facility of his or her designee can authorize longer confinement in the chair after the inmate’s condition has been examined by a medical professional with the approved type of licensing for this purpose.

Learn more in Part 1 and this ongoing series.

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