Sec. 320.2. Residential mental health unit model

A residential mental health unit (RMHU) is a program that includes a separate housing location within a correctional facility designed to address the corrections-based therapeutic treatment of inmates currently diagnosed with a serious mental illness who, due to their behavior, would otherwise be serving a confinement sanction in a special housing unit (SHU) or separate keeplock housing unit. These inmates often present with a complex interplay of antisocial behaviors and psychological factors. The unit is designed to meet the therapeutic needs of the inmates, while maintaining appropriate safety and security on the unit. Although an RMHU is not operated as a disciplinary housing unit, in light of the security concerns associated with the behaviors that resulted in their confinement and other sanctions, inmates on the unit are subject to limitations on the quantity and type of property they are permitted to have in their cells and are afforded access to programs that are more restrictive than those afforded general population inmates, in order to maintain security and order on the unit. After a brief orientation period and absent exceptional circumstances, in addition to exercise, inmates are offered four hours of structured out-of-cell therapeutic programming and/or mental health treatment on a daily basis, except on weekends and holidays.