A stun belt is a belt fastened around the subject's waist, leg, or arm that carries a battery and control pack, and contains features to stop the subject from unfastening or removing it. A remote-control signal is sent to tell the control pack to give the subject an electric shock. Some models are activated by the subject's movement. The electrical pulse delivered by the control pack is based on the waveform developed by

Jack Cover John Higson Cover Jr. (April 6, 1920 – February 7, 2009) was an American aerospace scientist who was the inventor of the Taser stun gun. Biography Cover was born in New York City on April 6, 1920, and grew up in Chicago. His father was a profes ...

, which he called the TASER. These devices are used to control prisoners in the United States and elsewhere in the world. One type is the REACT belt (see below). Some stun belts can restrain the subject's hands and have a strap going under his groin to stop him from rotating the belt around his waist to reach its battery and control pack and trying to deactivate it. Stun belts are not generally available to the public.

REACT belt

The Remote Electronically Activated Control Technology belt is a make of stun belt. It is a restraining device that applies 50 kV to the muscles in the area of the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

s, pulsed over

8 seconds ''8 Seconds'' is a 1994 American contemporary Western biographical drama film directed by John G. Avildsen. Its title refers to the length of time a bull rider is required to stay on for a ride to be scored. It stars Luke Perry as American rodeo le ...

. It is a product of Stun Tech Incorporated of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. In March 2000, Stun Tech became Electronic Defense Technology, LLC, which later became Stinger Systems, Inc. In the fall of 2010, the assets of Stinger Systems (including the REACT system) were purchased by Karbon Arms. The Band-It and Ice Shield (electrified riot shield) continue to be produced, sold by, and serviced by StunTronics LLC. The REACT belt is remote control-activated, with a range of up to 200–300 feet (60–90 meters). The REACT belt is no longer available from Stinger systems, having been replaced with a device which attaches to the arm or leg called the Band-It. Introduced in the United States in the early 1990s, by 1996 it was reportedly in use by the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

, the

U.S. Marshals Service The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforcem ...

, and 16 state correctional agencies including those of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

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Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

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Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, and

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. It is also used during judicial hearings (e.g., in 1998, against

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for frequently interrupting Judge

Joan Comparet-Cassani Joan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters *:Joan of Arc, a French military heroine *Joan (surname) Weather events *Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multiple ...

at a sentencing hearing). In 1996,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

called on the USA to ban the use and export of the machine, arguing that it is a

torture device Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

that is "in direct contravention of international standards on the treatment of prisoners". Since then, the United States has not complied with the organization's request. Presently, the U.S. and South Africa are the only two countries that still use the stun belt.

External links

Cruelty in Control
summarises some of the suits against the device including patent infringements * Barry Yeoman

Mother Jones * http://www.progressive.org/mag_cusactech * http://www.stuntronics.com/ice-shield-1.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Stun Belt Non-lethal weapons Police weapons Physical restraint Instruments of torture

REACT belt

See also

External links