The state of Rhode Island and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement on how to ensure that children in state care without a medical need to be in psychiatric wards will be able to go home and receive care integrated into their daily lives.
Hundreds of young teenagers and adolescent kids were unfairly isolated in psychiatric wards in Bradley Hospital over the last several years because of the failure of a Rhode Island state agency, according to U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha.
“That failure concerned a repeated, persistent pattern of behavior in which these children were unnecessarily and illegally confined in an acute care psychiatric institution,” Cunha said at a press conference on Thursday. “Often for weeks or months longer than their conditions required.”
The proposed plan comes in the form of a consent decree, which was filed in District Court on Thursday and must be accepted by a judge in order to become official.
This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.
