Everything 123. Remaining cautious. Hold it
12345671 while restrained.
It relaxes me. It kind of helped me
work through my anxiety.
Tyler Himmelstein calls
his experience torture.
There were times where I didn't
think I gave you. Get through it.
And like I I I was afraid that at some
point I would just like go into shock.
In July 2020, Tyler was in the San
Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo,
serving A9 year sentence for
assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
I hurt her pretty badly and I'll have to
live with it for the rest of my life.
There's not a day that goes
by that I don't regret it,
he says he's diagnosed with bipolar
disorder and can be a danger.
Sometimes I would resort to
banging my head pretty bad.
It would split my head open all the
way to the skull and I would usually
get like 12 to 15 stitches at a time,
like on his first day at San Carlos.
Tyler said after returning from
the hospital, he was placed in
clinical 4 point restraints. So
you're basically just restrained
like this for hours and hours.
It's a practice only done at San
Carlos and three other Department of
Corrections facilities, a practice
under scrutiny by attorney Megan Baker.
So I've been looking into the
conditions related to the treatment
of people with mental illness in
the Department of Corrections.
Baker is with disability law Colorado
and is working on a report regarding the
use of four point restraints within DC.
It's supposed to be to prevent harm,
and I think that there is an
understanding that it's supposed
to be imminent and serious harm,
but that's not how it how
it happens in actuality.
Baker went to investigate the
restraint cells at San Carlos,
where guards use hard metal cuffs
to strap people down to their beds.
The closest thing I can think of as
to what it looks like is like an
execution chamber, to be honest.
They took pictures of the place.
You can see the shackles
on his ankles, wrists. But
you're a diagram out of respect
for the person. She saw restraint.
Just the stark ugliness of it all, I mean.
Just as a human walking in that room,
the idea of thinking of being someone
that was subjected to that is,
I mean, it's unimaginable to me.
I had such bad bruising,
welts and slight bleeding on my
wrists and ankles that they ended
up uncuffing me and they put
gauze around my wrists and ankles
and then put the cuffs back on.
Tyler estimates he was in four
point restraints for about 20 hours
with an offer for a bathroom break.
He says. Once every six hours.
Somebody through that,
I believe is just torture.
Just blatantly torture.
That was just one day.
There are people who are
in these rooms for weeks.
The longest stretch that I'm
aware of that I've been able to
document in a row is 39 days,
Baker says she found that over a
two year period, DOC used four
point restraints 136 times.
But the length of each time,
she says, is a question.
The documentation that they
keep is really confusing.
It's a big problem because it makes
harder. It makes it harder to.
Let people know the excessive
amounts of time that you're in there.
Well, not providing sufficient
meaningful intervention for the
people who really need treatment,
not restraint treatment.
This is being done, they say,
to people who are mentally ill
and you put them in restraints,
and after long enough they will
start fighting their restraints and
start exhibiting negative behavior.
Just even a normal person, I believe, would
to make things worse, they say
once restraint DOC does not make it
clear what it takes to get released.
That they don't give you clear criteria
for when you're going to come off,
and so there's also just no sense of control.
You get into a downward spiral
of abuse that you can't escape,
you know, and that's what leads to
people being put in restraints for
such excessive amounts of time.
Now on parole, Tyler says he's stable.
Got my clozapine, taking
his medication regularly.
Going on long walks to destress.
And working on a lawsuit against
the mental health providers
who kept him in restraints.
My name is Tyler Himmel.
Steve and I have a severe
mental illness. I'm bipolar.
He even testified at the Capitol,
working with lawmakers on proposing
a new law to mandate the use
of soft restraints like vinyl,
more frequent checks on someone
in four point restraints,
a cap on how long someone
can be restrained each day,
and clear criteria on how to get out.
I'm sharing my story because I don't
want this to happen to anyone else.
The Department of Corrections did
not offer any comment except to say
it is working with legislators.
Society is judged by how we
treat our most vulnerable
bakers, soon to be published report as
part of the effort to create new laws.
Why we're doing this,
why we're getting this out there,
because, you know, people in facilities,
the people that I work with are,
are often the people who
have the least voice.
They're forgotten about.
People don't even know that the
facilities they're in exist.
They do now. Fighting
for the change of laws regarding 4
point restraints in jails and prisons
has given my life a lot of purpose,
you know? And and it's just
an honor to be a part of it.
With photojournalist Amy
Hunter Nelson Garcia 9 news.
Bakers report is expected
to be published this week.
She believes staffing shortages within
the Department of Corrections is a
factor in why 4 point restraints are
being used for long periods of time.
Boulder Democrat Judy Amabile is sponsoring
the bill to change prison regulations.
After multiple interview requests,
DC Public Information Officer
Annie Skinner sent a statement
tonight saying the restraints,
only used in clinical settings,
are closely monitored in order to protect
people from hurting themselves or others.