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moriah

(8,311 posts)
7. If that's how they do their jobs, they need retraining.
Mon Jul 16, 2018, 06:39 PM
Jul 2018

I know prison guatds don't necessarily intend to be murderous jackasses, but if this had been shown to the public before the death of Samira Wiley's character on OITNB, I'd accuse the show of deliberately ripping it off for their showing of how it can happen.

An officer is using a knee for compression in the back, and even after he's under relative control they keep using the knee in that very dangerous position. He does try to cooperate and focus on breathing, but the knee never lets up pressure. And when the fear that came from still not getting enough air made him start struggling again, it looked like the guy with the knee for control placed MORE compression.

I have severe asthma. The number of asthmatics who die in custody because of delays in getting rescue inhalers is bad enough.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_asphyxia#Prone_restraint

It's clear that the technique used by these officers contributed, and if nothing else they need to learn to distinguish real panic/fear struggles from resisting. These officers couldn't. Perhaps the person responding wouldn't either. But we as a society have a job to do when it comes to housing criminals -- keep them alive as well as keep them "controlled". And that means at least investing in better training on techniques to control inmates without killing them.

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