Download Stopping the Torture Trade - Omega Research Foundation

© Eric Tasden
Stopping the torture trade
12
such device is the restraint chair,
which allows a prisoner’s wrists
and ankles to be secured at the
same time — known as four-point
restraint. In addition straps can
be tightened across the prisoner’s
shoulders and chest. The restraint
chair has been marketed as a
“safer alternative” to other forms
of four-point restraint.
However, AI has received
reports of restraint chairs being
used in the USA to shackle
children and people with physical
disabilities; to punish prisoners
for minor infractions of prison
rules; and to incapacitate
prisoners while they are being
tortured or abused. Most of the
reported abuses have taken place
in jails, particularly in the intake areas.
Some moves have been made to restrict the use of restraint
chairs in the USA. In August 1999, for instance, a Tennessee
judge ruled that a confession obtained while a suspect was
confined to a restraint chair was inadmissible stating that:
“While such a chair may be useful, it can easily cross the line as
a coercive force”. 16 In November 1999 a judge in Ventura County,
California, issued a preliminary injunction banning the chair in
the county jail after a lawsuit was filed alleging widespread
abuse. 17
In May 2000 the UN Committee against Torture expressed its
concern that the use of restraint chairs may violate the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment and recommended that the
USA: “Abolish... restraint chairs as methods of restraining those
in custody. Their use almost invariably leads to breaches of
Article 16 of the Convention.” 18
Despite the evident risk of injury and abuse, at least one USbased
manufacturer continues to export restraint chairs. AEDEC
A restraint chair