Failing to Learn from John Connolly: Current Use of Restraint and Seclusion

Abstract

Restraint and seclusion continue to be used excessively, inappropriately, and lethally in current services in many countries. This chapter documents many examples of such problems in contemporary services in many different countries including the British education system, where some regulations, government officials, and unions may tacitly or explicitly endorse and encourage restraint use. Today, restraint continues to be used widely in some youth correctional facilities in both the USA and the UK. This chapter presents the recent exposes over use of restraint, isolation, and physical abuse with teenagers at Rikers Island, New York. It describes several contemporary institutional and community scandals in services for people with intellectual disabilities and autism which also include abuse of restraint including the British Winterbourne scandal. Other sections describe restraint-related scandals in nursing homes, restraint-related deaths in the hands of the police, immigration services, psychiatric hospitals, and natural and foster families. This chapter concludes that contemporary services have failed to learn from John Connolly.