POLICY BRIEF 86 | JUNE 2016
Compliance through pain
Electric shock equipment in South African prisons
Omega Research Foundation
Recommendations
1
Body-worn electric shock
devices (e.g. stun belts) have
no legitimate law-enforcement
purpose and their use should
be prohibited.
2
Hand-held direct contact
electric shock equipment,
such as stun shields and stun
guns, are prone to abuse and
should also be prohibited.
3
Non-electrified batons, shields
and cuffs should instead
be used to achieve restraint
and control.
4
Summary
Various kinds of electric shock devices are authorised for use in South
African prisons. These are designed to enforce compliance through pain,
incapacitation or fear of activation. However, their use has been associated
with acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. This policy brief provides an overview of electric shock equipment
and describes known harmful medical effects associated with its use. It
highlights the use and misuse of these types of equipment in correctional
institutions in South Africa, and outlines how and why this equipment is in
breach of local, regional and international standards. This brief is designed
to raise awareness of these concerns and to provide recommendations for
change in how electric shock equipment is used in South Africa.
WHILE SOME LESS LETHAL and restraint devices may have a legitimate role to
Given the problems with other
categories of electric shock
devices, wired projectile electric
shock weapons should be
prohibited from being introduced
into correctional centres or other
places of detention.
play in law enforcement, electric shock equipment has been implicated in serious
5
of law-enforcement functions, including the use of less lethal weapons and restraints.1
All use-of-force incidents
should be reported and
carefully monitored.
6
All prison policies and
staff training should be
compatible with domestic and
international human-rights norms
and standards.
abuses, at times amounting to torture. The wider concerns surrounding the use of
this equipment are not well known amongst law enforcement officials in South Africa,
including officers of the law who exercise police powers, especially powers of arrest or
detention, or among the bodies charged with monitoring them.
The UN sets out important principles and prerequisites for the humane performance
These standards make it clear that the use of force must be proportionate, lawful,
accountable and necessary if it is to be considered appropriate. In South Africa the
Correctional Services Act 111 of 1998 states that ‘[a] minimum degree of force must be
used and the force must be proportionate to the objective’.2
What is electric shock equipment?
Electric shock equipment operates through the application of electricity to the human
body to produce an effect. There are two main categories of equipment: direct contact