REACT belt
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The Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology belt is a restraining device that applies 50 kV to the muscles in the area of the kidneys, pulsed over 8 seconds. It is a product of Stun Tech Incorporated of Cleveland, Ohio. In March 2000, Stun Tech became Electronic Defense Technology, LLC, which later became Stinger Systems, Inc.
The REACT belt is no longer available from Stinger systems, having been replaced with a device which attaches to the arm or leg.
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 including 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, arguing that it is a torture device that is "in direct contravention of international standards on the treatment of prisoners".
See Electroshock gun#Stun belts for more about the use of such devices.
[edit] External links
- Cruelty in Control summarises some of the suits against the device incl patent infringements
- Barry Yeoman, Shocking Discipline, Mother Jones
