REACT belt
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The Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology belt is a restraining device that applies 50 kV to the kidneys, pulsed over 8 s. It is a product of Stun Tech Incorporated of Cleveland, Ohio.
Introduced in the USA in the early '90s, by 1996 it was reportedly in use by the US Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshals' Service, and 16 state correctional agencies incl. those of Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, and Washington. It is also used during judicial hearings (eg in 1998, against Ronald Hawkins in Los Angeles for frequently interrupting Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani at a sentencing hearing).
In 1996 Amnesty International called on the USA to ban use and export of the machine, claiming it is a torture device that is ‘in direct contravention of international standards on the treatment of prisoners.’
External
- Amnesty International press release (http://www.amnestyinternational.it/news/1996/25104896.htm)
- Cruelty in Control (http://www.amnesty.ca/library/1999/3amr5154.htm) summarises some of the suits against the device incl patent infringements