The use of restraint and seclusion in different racial groups in an inpatient forensic setting.

The purpose of this study was to determine if physical restraint and/or seclusion had been used with different frequencies in patients of different racial groups in an inpatient forensic psychiatry facility. The method used was a retrospective correlational study of all inpatients (n = 806) treated from January 1993 through August 2000 at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a maximum-security inpatient forensic facility in Ward's Island, NY, near New York City. Episodes of restraint and/or seclusion were measured in each racial group. The number of violent incidents involving patients of each racial group was also measured. Racial groups at Kirby did not differ significantly from each other in number of violent incidents nor in the number of episodes of restraints. However, Asians and blacks as racial groups were more likely to have been secluded than were other racial groups. This difference did not persist when the number of incidents of seclusion was considered individually rather than for entire racial groups.