We are getting a glimpse of the world behind the walls at Bridgewater State Hospital, and it’s not a pretty picture.

A week after the state agreed to a $3 million settlement with the family of Joshua Messier, a mentally ill 23-year-old man who died at hospital after being restrained using a method forbidden under state regulations, the mother of a 31-year-old man being held at the hospital plans to file suit today charging that her son has been kept in isolation or strapped to a bed for days or even weeks at a time.

The lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Globe reporter Michael Rezendes, alleges that Peter Minich, who was diagnosed more than a decade ago with paranoid schizophrenia, has been kept in isolation in a small cell or strapped to a bed in four-point restraints for 70 percent of the 14 months he has been held at the hospital. The suit says his “psychological condition has substantially deteriorated as a result of his prolonged isolation and placement in a correctional facility.”

Like other mentally ill men being held at Bridgewater, Rezendes writes, Minich has never been convicted of a crime. He was sent to Bridgewater for evaluation after assaulting a staff member in the psychiatric unit at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston.

According to today’s Globe story, state law permits use of seclusion and restraints only “in cases of emergency following an act of ‘extreme violence’ or the threat of such an act. The story also says Bridgewater’s policy has supposedly been to “prevent, reduce, and strive to eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint.”

In the wake of the Messier case, Gov. Deval Patrick spoke out against widespread use of isolation for mental patients and said that except for cases where a patient presents an immediate threat to himself or others, “he should not be tied down, limb-by-limb in the 21st century here in Massachusetts.” (Neither Patrick nor the state Department of Correction would comment on the Minich case.)

The attorney for Minich’s mother, Roderick MacLeish, Jr., said the conditions he saw recently at Bridgewater resembled those he saw in the 1980s when he filed a landmark suit against the state over conditions there. “Nothing’s changed,” MacLeish tells the Globe. “In a civilized society, we should not be putting people with an organic brain disease in prison, and we certainly shouldn’t be locking them up behind solid steel doors and depriving them of virtually all human contact.”

Bridgewater’s notoriety for its treatment of the mentally ill predates MacLeish’s suit. Indeed, the hospital became virtually synonymous with barbaric treatment of mental patients through Frederick Wiseman‘s 1967 documentary Titicut Follies. The film stands as a searing indictment of the warehousing and abusive treatment of mental patients at that time. The film shows guards taunting emaciated inmates, who are sometimes forced to strip publicly.

The release of the film was the subject of a protracted legal standoff, with the state claiming its showing would violate patient confidentiality. Wiseman said he had permission from patients to film them and maintained the state was only interested in preventing the public from seeing the deplorable conditions at the facility. At one point, a state judge ordered all copies of the film pulled from distribution, making it the only movie in US history ever banned for reasons other than “obscenity or national security,” according to this account.

It was not until 1991 that a ruling by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice lifted all restrictions on the showing of the film.

“Rather than launching an investigation into conditions in our mental institutions, the state went after my film,” Wiseman said at the time. “I suppose it was a case of wanting to kill the messenger.” He claimed that the film was actually being screened regularly at Bridgewater as “a training film in what not to do.”

–MICHAEL JONAS  

BEACON HILL

State Rep. Alan Silvia of Fall River has filed a bill to require all public and private schools to have EpiPens, the autoinjector used to counter extreme allergic reactions.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt wants to hire a facilities manager to develop a strategic plan to perform maintenance on city buildings before repairs become a costly emergency, the Salem News reports.

CASINOS

Springfieldmetro area residents get one last chance to opine about the MGM Springfield project in front of the state’s gaming commissioners before they decide whether or not to give them the only western Massachusetts license.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

Former House speaker Tom Finneran, who writes a regular column for GoLocalWorcester, says Republican Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is unfairly being lambasted for comments about the black underclass that sound remarkably similar to those made by President Obama.

US Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Scott Brown shared an icy and awkward greeting in a nearly empty church meeting room in Manchester, New Hampshire — before returning to the business of publicly pummelling each other.

ELECTIONS

John Nucci expects the divisions currently roiling the state GOP to last well until the fall: “If you liked the way the Republicans ran their convention, you’ll love the way they’ll run the state!”

Kimberly Atkins sizes up Sen. Elizabeth Warren‘s rockstar campaign appeal as Democrats cling to control of the Senate.

The New York Times reports on disillusionment among Latino voters — a fact that complicates Democrats’ electoral math.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Massachusetts businesses are hoping for a break on unemployment insurance taxes as part of a deal to increase the state’s minimum wage.

Hope are rising for Roxbury’s Dudley Square as the redevelopment of its anchor Ferdinand Building proceeds.

Police and shop owners say a patchwork of regulations governing pawn shops in Massachusetts makes it difficult to track stolen goods and they say it would be better to have uniform state regulations.

Apple and Samsung climb into the ring again.

EDUCATION

Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy warns of major layoffs in city government if the municipality is forced to meet net school spending targets from the state, the Item reports.

Massachusetts schools raise concerns about technology demands of the new standardized test, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

A new report says women are three times less likely to become research scientists because of negative stereotypes, with the gap beginning in high school and growing through college and career paths.

Funding appears to be falling into place for the first new Boston public school building in more than a decade, replacement construction of Roxbury’s Dearborn School into a STEM-focused 6-12 grade facility.

New York magazine traces the arc of Bill de Blasio‘s $300 million pre-kindergarten win.

TRANSPORTATION

A Cape Cod resident and former Malaysia Airlines pilot offers a plausible theory on the possible fate of the missing plane.

The MetroWest Daily News notes that the western tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike won’t come down in 2017, and isn’t very happy about it.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

An United Nations panel documents widespread impacts from climate change, the BBC reports. The head of the group says no one and no place on earth will be left untouched, Time reports.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A well-known Boston-born rapper and TV reality star was allegedly shot by his nephew on Route 3 in Duxbury on Saturday while the family was driving in a funeral procession for the victim’s mother.

MEDIA

The parent company of the Eagle-Tribune launches a new magazine called North of Boston Business.

Some Twitter users are freaking out over the social media company’s experiment in changing “retweet” to “share.”

If you think your social-media-crazed friend will be off Twitter for at least a few hours while running the Boston Marathon, think again.