After Christmas in 2016, Albert Okal, charged with driving while intoxicated in Missouri, became agitated in the Wayne County Jail. For five days, staff members cuffed his wrists and ankles to a “restraint chair,” where they force-fed him, covered his head with a blanket, and refused to let him use the bathroom, leaving him to urinate and defecate on himself. He remembers being restrained for five days. He has sued the county, which denies placing Okal in the device. Many people arrive in jail while extremely intoxicated or suffering from a mental health crisis. Experts say restraint chairs can be helpful in stopping them from harming themselves or others, report The Marshall Project and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Experts caution that after imminent threats pass, using the chairs can be dangerous, causing deaths by overdose and blood clots resulting from extended periods in the same position. Some states, including Florida and Utah, have banned the use of such restraints in certain state facilities, but some county jails and immigration detention facilities still use them. A review of lawsuits and press reports found the chair linked to 20 jail deaths in the past six years. In 2014, USA Today connected the device to more than 36 deaths going back to the late 1990s. At least nine people have sued jails since 2013, citing restraint chairs as part of a wider claim of abuse; some describe being beaten, tasered, or pepper-sprayed while strapped in. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice said the Boyd County Detention Center, a 206-bed jail in Catlettsburg, Ky., punished prisoners — some of whom had attempted suicide — by placing them in a chair with “their genitals exposed to passers-by.”
1 Comment
What, oh what, in God’s name, can we do about all the prison abuse?!? One could read about it every day I keep up with the Marshall Project but most know nothing about such, even though it’s made such great strides. If only there were more in popular reads. I know only a couple people who read publications such as “Mother Jones” or “The Nation”
With no oversight anywhere, especially in the jail system… WHAT CAN WE DO? HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL SOMEONE LISTENS?
I don’t even know if I expect a response from this but I’d love one, especially if there’s any hope anywhere.
Thank you sooo much!
Maura Ubinger