Did Criminals In Hospitals Just Get Handcuffed To The Hospital Bed Or What?

I am a bedside registered nurse on a surgical care unit in a rural community hospital in the US. Nurses on my unit provide care for medical patients and pre-op and post-op care for surgical patients, primarily involving abdominal, GI, and urology surgeries. For example, with a small bowel obstruction, the surgeon will try conservative treatment such as IV fluids and bowel rest to see if the problem resolves within a few days. If the obstruction persists and/or if the situation worsens, the patient is taken to the OR.

I have taken care of a male criminal prior to being charged and as well as caring for male prisoners from corrective institutes. How a patient is detained and guarded is the corrective institution’s policy. I’ve seen prisoners either shackled to the bed frame by the wrist or by a wrist and an ankle. These patients are always minded round the clock by at least one guard/officer if not two who stay in the room with the patient. The hospital provides meals for these guards, and both the prisoner’s and the guard’s meals and drinks are all disposable ware.

The main problem with shackling is toileting and blood clot prevention (DVT, deep vein thrombosis). Sometimes, the guards have been easy to work with and at other times, they seem preoccupied with checking their phones, watching TV, and texting. If the patient is shackled to the bed, there is little I can do without a guard’s help, so it helps when the guards are professional and cooperative.

At my hospital, the General DVT prevention protocol is to ambulate patients four times a day if the patient is able, compression knee stockings and/or sequential air sleeves applied to either feet or lower legs, and either a subcutaneous injection of Heparin twice a day or Lovenox daily. The prisoners are walked in the hallways, handcuff shackled as well as ankle shackled accompanied by the guard(s) and one of our nursing staff.

When taking care of a prisoner, the stay is at minimum a few days. The medical problem is acute and severe enough to require pain and nausea medication as well as requiring specialized care by physicians and nurses not available in a prison.