MONTPELIER, VT - Settling a lawsuit by a disability-rights group, the state Department of Corrections has agreed take a more therapeutic and less punitive approach to inmates who harm themselves.

Vermont Protection & Advocacy, a federally funded nonprofit agency that helps people with disabilities, sued the department in September 2004. It alleged that inmates who did things ranging from cutting oneself to attempted suicide by hanging were being punished, rather than being given adequate mental health services.

"There are numerous instances of (inmates) being pepper-sprayed, assaulted, isolated, restrained, held naked or barely clothed, and losing various privileges, including liberty, visitation and programming based on self-harming behavior related to their (mental health) disabilities for which they did not receive adequate treatment," the lawsuit alleged.

The result was a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars cruel or unusual punishment, the lawsuit said.

In the settlement, reached last week and released by VP&A on Thursday, the department agreed to:

-- Issue a new directive on responses to self-harming behavior.

-- Have a consultant provide training to staff on appropriate responses, which will be videotaped and made required viewing for all department personnel and consultants.

-- Hire a second consultant or consultants to do follow-up monitoring to ensure the new directives and training are being followed.

In a memo to staff about the settlement, Corrections Commissioner Robert Hofmann said "that under no circumstances may an inmate be placed on disciplinary segregation status for self-harming behaviors."

Hofmann said the directive "includes a provision that if an inmate who self-harms is placed on segregation status for any other reason, a qualified mental health professional must be consulted and no contra-indications to the placement exist.

"The directive also includes provisions addressing how and when force and restraints may be used, and reaffirms DOC's commitment to using the least force necessary to assure the safety of inmates and staff, while maintaining security."

Hofmann said in an interview that the department had been working independently of its negotiations with VP&A to improve its handling of mentally ill inmates. He called inmates with serious mental illness a "huge challenge."

"We're fortunate that we've got hundreds of correctional employees who have got the ability and the resilience to take on a burden that most citizens would not want to shoulder," the commissioner said.

"I welcome the spotlight on this," Hofmann added. "I welcome the chance for the media and the public to take a look at the incredibly difficult working conditions that our staff has to labor under."

Ed Paquin, director of VP&A, said implementation of the settlement "is going to take a lot of effort, it's going to take training and it's going to take vigilance on all parts."

"Over the course of this lawsuit I think the department has gained a better understanding that the underlying causes of that sort of behavior need to be addressed and punishment is not the way to do it," Paquin added.

"With pressures on the system of overcrowding and larger numbers of folks with very serious mental health issues that Corrections are dealing with, it's incredibly important that we take a step back and look at issues like this from a therapeutic and justice standpoint," Paquin said.

That's needed "to ensure that we're not making decisions based on expediency but that people are getting treatment that is to a community standard," he added, "because that's what the law requires -- medical and mental health treatment to a community standard."