COGrimm, glad your admin goes for the appropriate tools. But not all can say that. I work in a jail with 1400 inmates and an admin that doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the circumstances. I too am a certified instructor (23 yrs) but that is all we get up untill recently. Now supervisors get OC and we have a chair. The admin sits on a unsecured side isolated from the rest of the jail. Only one of the current administrators has ever worked as a correctional officer. Not that they do do a good job of administrating but they lack the experience of line staff officers. Unfortunately they also don’t think most of the officers are capable of making those decisions that are often necessary to deploy those tools when appropriate. Again as I have written before, lack of high hiring standards and lack of sufficient training. It is all about costs.
Maybe this should be a question to ask ANY of the jail bloggers out there:

Amazing how my children(6) pay to get tattoos, try to get me to get one, but then realize I already have life’s tattoos. Besides, there isn’t much space left over that doesn’t have a scar on it. I’m with you on the Ibuprophen and vit e. Hot tubs work well too. Getting out of bed in the morning isn’t so bad, I get out of bed just fine, it’s picking myself off the floor that is tough!! :-) Gravity is not my friend!!

Yes, we all have a scar or two from the past that keeps reminding use to be carefull in the future, I will wear mine ( I have no choice ) but I hate how it fills in the morning when I get out of bed. Blessed it be for Ibprophen and Vitamin E oil.

My handwriting is worse than my typing, too many broken fingers (over nthe span of my correctional officer career.) You may guess how those fingers were broken :-)

Ahh, broken fingers he says….you wuss. back in my day, you had to use a pen and it could poke your eye out. Those where some tough old day to work in.

Sorry Squeeze but I’m bored and couldn’t let that one go.

Sorry aboutn the typing, too many broken fingers:-)

Here we have just graduated to a restraint chair and OC. It used to be better with a CERT team and other non-lethal, then we digressed back to nothing with little training. All this because a few people were injured in training and in active duty. Mostly training. Much to do woth lack of physical hiring standards. Theremisn’t any physical agility or fitness component to the testing. Too sad. This is the only place where I have worked in Corrections that doesn’t have a physical fitness test or standard, just a pulse and respiration. Why we continue to hire 5’2 350 pound what ever gender tht cant jog down a hallway or bend down to do CPR. Sopme cand do thew proper techniques for subject control so we lower the standard to pass the course. I’m not saying you have to be an athelete or even fit but just be able to perform the duties physically so when it is time to cover my partners back they don’t get injured practicing. 15 years ago we were modernizing and teaching these necessary skills to each and every officer then recerting annuually. But now every wuss seems to get injured then takes as much time off and FMLA so they don’t have top work full time. JEEEEEEEZ!! Aren’t there any more tough people in this state anymore besides the U’s offensive line?

THE TASER IS VERY EFFECTIVE TOOL AND WILL REDUCE OFFICER’S INJURIES AS WELL AS INJURIES TO THE DISORDERLY SUBJECT, BUT UNDERSTANDING THE TASER IS NOT EFECTIVE ON EVERYONE, YOU MUST BE ABLE TO TAKE DOWN A SUBJECT AND MAINTAIN CONTROL.

I just started to work for the US Penitentiary and I am very surprised all Federal Correctional Officers do not have any defensive weapon. The only thing that stands between us and the inmates are our radios and fists. You would think the Federal Penitentiary would have all the great toys. Anybody works for the US Marshal Detention side?? I wonder what those guys have.

Most would but some prisons are still fighting to get every guard a can of OC. Then there is cost an entire can of OC costs what one cartridge for the tazer dose if I remember correctly.

I would love to see the X-26 inside the prison. Granted I am not in a county jail. I am in a state prison but I think just the sight of a taser would effectivly resolve a lot of issues that we face an a daily basis. Right now we have PR-24’s, OC and a L8 gas launcher. We also have less lethal shotguns with appropriate rounds but all this, with the exception of OC, is used in extream situations. I think a taser would be a good alternative.

Almost all of our officers carry the TASER X-26 in the jail. Just recently our administration purchased 12 TASER that we can sign out at the start of each shift. Having only 10-13 officers on shift at any given time makes it so every single officer has the opportunity to carry one. Some officers choose not to carry one for any one of a thousand reasons, but the majority do carry them. Its a great thing tool to have when its a 1:50 ratio in a direct supervision environment.

We used to have the shotgun with the bean bags. They were a little too effective for the department’s liking. We switched to the 40mm Launcher with rubber and wood projectiles. They also fire gas rounds.

We do have the LTL bean bag rounds for the shotguns. I’ve never had the chance to use them first hand but from what I’ve learned from training my opinion would judge them as effective.

Do any of your prisons use bean bag guns?

Can’t tell you how many times I wished I had a cattle prodder when recalling a yard or moving an uncooperative inmate. That would be a useful tool.

Basicly nobody wants to act stupid when they know what the consequences are going to be bad news. So my opinion is….. Taser = Great Idea.

I’d love to have a taser on my rounds.

Sure the potential for abuse is there but its there for pr24, mace, cuffs, etc.

Not to mention the last i checked the taser itself records its usage.

Our facility had looked at the stun shield, but the problem was that we see most of our problems in the intake and holding area with incoming drunks and druggies. Putting that little red dot on a man’s chest is so effective that we just decided to stay with that rather than a shield that a drunk might not realize was as powerful.

Yes I think it’s a definite attitude changer for sure. We do have a stun shield with 50,000 volts that the CERT team is being trained to use and I believe the State of NY will allow that compared to individual Tasers. The lead man takes the stun shield, presses the inmate into the wall of the block, cell, tier and if necessary zaps them, keeps the shield in place and the rest of the team grabs both arms and legs then goes from there.

All of our Sgts. carry tasers. They are quite effective in tense situations or with large inmates. They are rarely used but the knowledge of their being their is enough to gain compliance in most cases. That little red dot has a powerful effect on the attitude! We do not use them often, but when we do they leave a lasting memory on all around and not just the guy who rides the lightning. I have seen some of the baddest guys watch someone else get tased and for a long time they will tell others: “Man you better get right. They got that lightning! You don’t want that!” lol 50000 units of pistol gripped “get right” is a wonderful tool in a bad situation!

New York State Commission of Corrections bans Tasers in all jails. They told us the reason is they believe the Tasers will be overused and to punish inmates rather than for control. I doubt seriously if you will see them allowed in the future.

We do not use Tasers in my facility in Idaho but I am a great proponent of them. They work better than OC to gain instant compliance and I believe they are actually more humane. If someone is contaminated with OC they experiance that for up to an hour sometimes. With Tasers, the ride lasts five seconds and the pain is over, usually, with no lasting affect other than some muscle soreness in the next day or two. As far as Tasers being used against staff by inmates, again, if you get sprayed by OC then you’re pretty much screwed for the next ten minutes while you try your best to catch glimpes of what’s going on before your eyes slam shut again. You’re totally helpless. If an inmate gets a hold of your Taser, you have a few moments to rush him while he tries to figure out how to use it. If you do get zapped, he’s probably not going to hold the trigger down for the full five and even if he does, when it’s over, you can grab the leads and yank them out or use them to recover your device and immediately get back in the fight. Furthermore, you’re only going to get hit once while with OC they can spray a few times.

Thanks for the info….appreciate the time to answer

NIJ released a study in May 2011, Police Use of Force, Tasers and Other Less-Lethal Weapons. The data there is quite supportive and may be helpful to you. They also released “Study of Deaths Following Electro Muscular Disruption,” which also speaks to the safety of such devices as tasers and stun guns.