The hogtie is a method of tying the limbs together, rendering the subject immobile and helpless. Originally, it was applied to pigs (hence the name) and other young four-legged animals.
46-450: Handcuffs are restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a chain , a hinge , or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm which engages with a ratchet that prevents it from being opened once closed around a person's wrist. Without a key, handcuffs cannot be removed without specialist knowledge, and a handcuffed person cannot move their wrists more than
92-424: A belly chain . In this type of arrangement a metal, leather, or canvas belt is attached to the waist, sometimes with a locking mechanism. The handcuffs are secured to the belly chain and the prisoner's hands are kept at waist level. This allows a relative degree of comfort for the prisoner during prolonged internment in the securing device, while providing a greater degree of restriction to movement than simply placing
138-500: A better chance of attempting to use a tool (such as a shim or lockpick ) to work one's way out of the handcuffs. In Japan , if an arrested suspect of crime was photographed or filmed while handcuffed, their hands have to be pixelated if it is used on TV or in the newspapers . This is because Kazuyoshi Miura , who had been arrested on suspicion of the murder of his wife, brought a successful case to court arguing that being pictured in handcuffs implied guilt , and had prejudiced
184-629: A few centimetres or inches apart, making many tasks difficult or impossible. Handcuffs are frequently used by law enforcement agencies worldwide to prevent suspected criminals from escaping from police custody . There are three main types of contemporary metal handcuffs: chain (cuffs are held together by a short chain), hinged (since hinged handcuffs permit less movement than a chain cuff, they are generally considered to be more secure), and rigid solid bar handcuffs. While bulkier to carry, rigid handcuffs permit several variations in cuffing. Hiatts Speedcuffs are rigid handcuffs used by most police forces in
230-400: A key; more expensive than conventional plastic restraints, they can only be used a very limited number of times, and are not as strong as conventional disposable restraints, let alone modern metal handcuffs. In addition, plastic restraints are believed by many to be more likely to inflict nerve or soft-tissue damage to the wearer than metal handcuffs. Legcuffs are similar to handcuffs, but have
276-497: A larger inner perimeter so that they fit around a person's ankles. Some models consist of elliptically contoured cuffs so that they widely adapt to the anatomy of the ankle, minimizing pressure on the Achilles' tendon. Standard-type leg irons have a longer chain connecting the two cuffs compared to handcuffs. On occasions when a suspect exhibits extremely aggressive behavior, leg irons may be used in addition to handcuffs; sometimes
322-433: A longer connector chain . These combinations further restrict the detainee's freedom of movement and prevent them from escaping. Handcuffs with double locks have a detent which when engaged stops the cuff from ratcheting tighter to prevent the wearer from tightening them. Tightening could be intentional or by struggling; if tightened, the handcuffs may cause nerve damage or loss of circulation. Also some wearers could tighten
368-714: A patient still needs restraints, Japanese psychiatric hospitals keep patients in restraints for a much longer time than hospitals in other countries. According to a survey conducted on 689 patients in 11 psychiatric hospitals in Japan, the average time spent in physical restraints is 96 days. Meanwhile, the average time in most other developed countries is at most several hours to tens of hours. The number of people who are physically restrained in Japanese psychiatric hospitals continues to increase. In 2014 more than 10,000 people were restrained-the highest ever recorded, and more than double
414-736: A person, which are predominantly used by trained police or correctional officers . This less commonly also extends to joint locks and pinning techniques. Physical restraints are used: Restraining someone against their will is generally a crime in most jurisdictions, unless it is explicitly sanctioned by law. (See false arrest , false imprisonment ). Restraint has been misused in special education settings resulting in severe injury and trauma of students and lack of education from spending school hours restrained. The misuse of physical restraint has resulted in many deaths. Physical restraint can be dangerous, sometimes in unexpected ways. Examples include: For these and many other reasons, extreme caution
460-431: A secure area to prevent attempts to escape. When being placed in standard legcuffs, the prisoner will still have the possibility to manage normal steps and can therefore walk independently, but is prevented from running. When the connecting chain between the legcuffs is shortened, the prisoner will have even difficulties to walk so that the flight risk is further minimized. In this case, the prisoner will have to be carried by
506-452: A significant risk of injury if the prisoner trips or stumbles, in addition to injuries sustained from overly tight handcuffs causing handcuff neuropathy. Police officers having custody of the person need to be ready to catch a stumbling prisoner. As soon as restraints go on, the officer has full liability. The risk of the prisoner losing balance is higher if the hands are handcuffed behind the back than if they are handcuffed in front; however,
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#1732776904072552-431: A type called "Mitten Handcuffs" to prevent criminals from being able to grab an object like the officer's gun. While used by some in law enforcement it was never popular. Handcuffs may be manufactured from various metals , including carbon steel , stainless steel and aluminium , or from synthetic polymers . Sometimes two pairs of handcuffs are needed to restrain a person with an exceptionally large waistline because
598-425: A variety of sizes. Modern handcuffs are generally ratcheted until they are too tight to be slipped off the hands. However, slipping out of ratchet cuffs is still possible. During his shows, Harry Houdini was frequently secured with multiple pairs of handcuffs. Any pair that was too difficult to be picked was placed on his upper arms. Being very muscular, his upper arms were far larger than his hands. Once he had picked
644-665: A way to restrain disruptive passengers. Disposable restraints could be considered to be cost-inefficient; they cannot be loosened, and must be cut off to permit a restrained subject to be fingerprinted, or to attend to bodily functions. It is not unheard of for a single subject to receive five or more sets of disposable restraints in their first few hours in custody. However, aforementioned usage means that cheap handcuffs are available in situations where steel ones would normally lie unused for long times. Recent products have been introduced that serve to address this concern, including disposable plastic restraints that can be opened or loosened with
690-486: A woman did not want her medication. "If you are a woman who has been sexually or physically abused, and mental health problems in women often have close links to violence and abuse, then a safer environment has to be just that: safe and not a re-traumatising experience. (...) Face-down restraint hurts, it is dangerous, and there are some big questions around why it is used more on women than men". Hogtie The hogtie when used on pigs and cattle has it where three of
736-445: Is a danger that the patients will harm themselves. The law also states that a designated psychiatrist must approve the use of restraints and examine the patient at least every 12 hours to determine whether the situation has changed and the patient should be removed from restraints. However, in practice, Japanese psychiatric hospitals use restraints fairly often and for long periods. Despite being required to certify every 12 hours whether
782-940: Is an electronic charter which promotes an end to the teaching to frontline healthcare staff of all prone (face down) restraint holds. Despite a UK government statement in 2013 that it was minded to impose a ban on such techniques in mental health facilities, by 2017 the use of restraints in UK psychiatric facilities had increased. Face down restraints are used more often on women and girls than on men. 51 out of 58 mental health trusts use restraints unnecessarily when other techniques would work. Organisations opposed to restraints include Mind and Rethink Mental Illness . YoungMinds and Agenda claim restraints are "frightening and humiliating" and "re-traumatises" patients especially women and girls who have previously been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. The charities sent an open letter to health secretary, Jeremy Hunt showing evidence from 'Agenda,
828-501: Is needed in the use of physical restraint. Gagging a restrained person is highly risky, as it involves a substantial risk of asphyxia , both from the gag itself, and also from choking or vomiting and being unable to clear the airway. In practice, simple gags do not restrict communication much; however, this means that gags that are effective enough to prevent communication are generally also potentially effective at restricting breathing. Gags that prevent communication may also prevent
874-564: Is routine". Government guidelines state that face down restraint should not be used at all and other types of physical restraint are only for last resort. Research by Agenda found one fifth of women and girl patients in mental health units had suffered physical restraint. Some trusts averaged over twelve face down restraints per female patient. Over 6% of women, close to 2,000 were restrained face-down in total more than 4,000 times. The figures vary widely between regions. Some trusts hardly use restraints, others use them routinely. A woman patient
920-536: The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and others are notable exceptions, as they favor palms-together handcuffing. This helps prevent radial neuropathy or handcuff neuropathy during extended periods of restraint. Suspects are handcuffed with the keyholes facing up (away from the hands) to make it difficult to open them even with a key or improvised lock-pick . Because a person's hands are used in breaking falls, being handcuffed introduces
966-480: The biceps and triceps muscles, and when tried by suspects (even unsuccessfully) can lead to injury, including bruising around the wrists, or tearing the muscles used (including pulling them off their attachments to the bones). Another common method of escaping (or attempting to escape) from being handcuffed behind the back, is that one would, from a sitting or lying position, bring one's legs up as high upon one's torso as possible, then push one's arms down to bring
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#17327769040721012-645: The trial . Similarly, in France , a law prohibits media from airing images of people in handcuffs, or otherwise restrained, before they have been convicted by a court. Also in Italy the Code of criminal procedure prohibits the publication of images of people deprived of personal liberty while they are handcuffed or subjected to other means of physical coercion. According to the Italian independent authority on data protection,
1058-577: The UK restraint related deaths would appear to be reported less often. The evidence for effective staff training in the use of medical restraints is at best crude, with evaluation of training programmes being the exception rather than the rule. Vast numbers of care staff are trained in 'physical interventions' including physical restraint, although they rarely employ them in practice. It is accepted that staff training in physical interventions can increase carer confidence. Japanese law states that psychiatric hospitals may use restraints on patients only if there
1104-556: The United Kingdom. Both rigid and hinged cuffs can be used one-handed to apply pain-compliance/control techniques that are not workable with the chain type of cuff. Various accessories are available to improve the security or increase the rigidity of handcuffs, including boxes that fit over the chain or hinge and can themselves be locked with a padlock . In 1933 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used
1150-540: The United States, the United Kingdom and Latin America can be opened with the same standard universal handcuff key. This allows for easier transport of prisoners. However, there are handcuff makers who use keys based on different standards. Maximum security handcuffs require special keys. Handcuff keys usually do not work with thumbcuffs . The Cuff Lock handcuff key padlock uses this same standard key. To prevent
1196-616: The alliance for women and girls at risk', revealing that patients are routinely restrained in some mental health units while others use non-physical ways to calm patients or stop self-harm. According to the letter over half of women with psychiatric problems have suffered abuse, restraint can cause physical harm, can frighten and humiliate the victim. Restraint, specially face down restraint can re-traumatise patients who previously suffered violence and abuse. "Mental health units are meant to be caring, therapeutic environments, for people feeling at their most vulnerable, not places where physical force
1242-473: The chain connecting the leg irons to one another is looped around the chain of the handcuffs, and then the leg irons are applied, resulting in the person being " hog-tied ". In a few rare cases, hog-tied persons lying on their stomachs have died from positional asphyxia , making the practice highly controversial, and leading to its being severely restricted, or even completely banned, in many localities. Legcuffs are also used when transporting prisoners outside of
1288-453: The communication of distress that might otherwise prevent injury. A survey in the US in 1998 reported an estimated 150 restraint related deaths in care environments (Weiss, 1998). Low frequency fatalities occur with some degree of regularity. An investigation of 45 restraint related deaths in US childcare settings showed 28 of these deaths were reported to have occurred in the prone position. In
1334-557: The constitution. Police handcuffs are sometimes used in sexual bondage and BDSM activities. This is potentially unsafe, because they were not designed for this purpose, and their use can result in nerve injury ( handcuff neuropathy ) or other tissue damage. Bondage cuffs were designed specifically for this application. They were designed using the same model of soft restraints used on psychiatric patients because they can be worn for long periods of time. Many such models can be fastened shut with padlocks. Handcuffs are familiar enough for
1380-432: The cuffs to attempt an escape by having the officer loosen the cuffs and attempting to escape while the cuffs are loose. Double locks also make picking the locks more difficult. There exist three kinds of double locks as described in a Smith & Wesson brochure: Double locks are generally disengaged by inserting the key and rotating it in the opposite direction from that used to unlock the cuff. Most modern handcuffs in
1426-400: The feet; then sliding each foot up and over the cuffs. These maneuvers, and the reverse (otherwise impossible) maneuver of bringing the handcuffed hands up behind the back and forwards over the head and then down in front, can be done fairly easily by some people who were born without collarbones because of the inherited deformity called cleidocranial dysostosis . From this position, one has
Handcuffs - Misplaced Pages Continue
1472-431: The four limbs are tied together, as tying all four together is difficult and can result in harm to the animal. When performed on a human, a hogtie is any position that results in the arms and legs being bound, both tied behind the person and then connecting the hands and feet. The practice has been called inhumane . Typically, the person's feet are restrained with legcuffs or similar devices, and handcuffed with
1518-407: The handcuffs below one's feet, finally pulling the handcuffs up using one's arms to the front of one's body. This can lead to awkward or painful positions depending on how the handcuffs were applied, and typically requires a good amount of flexibility . It can also be done from a standing position, where, with some degree of effort, the handcuffed hands are slid around the hips and down the buttocks to
1564-399: The handcuffs on the wrists in the front. When the handcuffs are concealed by a handcuff cover and secured at the prisoner's waist by a belly chain, this combination will result in a rather more severe restraint and the restrained person may feel discomfort or even pain. For added security, some transport restraints have a pair of leg irons connected to a pair of handcuffs or a belly chain by
1610-414: The hands behind the back. The feet are pulled behind the person, until the hands and feet can be connected. (The head and neck are left free. ) The restrained person is then placed on the stomach, in a face-down prone position , which decreases the risk of the restrained person kicking nearby people or objects, or hurting themselves by pounding their heads against nearby objects, but which also increases
1656-980: The hands cannot be brought close enough together; in this case, one cuff on one pair of handcuffs is handcuffed to one of the cuffs on the other pair, and then the remaining open handcuff on each pair is applied to the person's wrists. Oversized handcuffs are available from a number of manufacturers. The National Museum of Australia has a number of handcuffs in its collection dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include 'T'-type 'Come Along', 'D'-type and 'Figure-8' handcuffs. Plastic restraints, known as wrist ties, riot cuffs, plasticuffs, flexicuffs, flex-cuffs, tri-fold cuffs, zapstraps, zipcuffs, or zip-strips, are lightweight, disposable plastic strips resembling electrical cable ties. They can be carried in large quantities by soldiers and police and are therefore well-suited for situations where many may be needed, such as during large-scale protests and riots. In recent years, airlines have begun to carry plastic handcuffs as
1702-420: The locks on the lower pairs of handcuffs, the upper pair could simply be slipped off. It is also technically possible to break free from handcuffs by applying massive amounts of force from one's arms to cause the device to split apart or loosen enough to squeeze one's hands through; however, this takes exceptional strength (especially with handcuffs made of steel ). This also puts an immense amount of pressure on
1748-569: The number a decade earlier. It is thought that some of that increase includes older patients with dementia. As a result, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has revised its guidelines for elderly people in nursing homes to have more restrictions against body restraints. The changes will take effect on 1 April 2018. Deaths have been reported from their use, including that of Kelly Savage , an Assisted Language Teacher from New Zealand, in 2017. The Millfields Charter
1794-490: The past, police officers typically handcuffed an arrested person with their hands in front, but since approximately the mid-1960s behind-the-back handcuffing has been the standard. The vast majority of police academies in the United States today also teach their recruits to apply handcuffs so that the palms of the suspect's hands face outward after the handcuffs are applied. The Jacksonville, Florida Police Department,
1840-411: The restrained person from eventually opening the handcuffs with a handcuff key, a handcuff cover may be used to conceal the keyholes of the handcuffs. When applied behind the back with keyholes away from the hands, handcuffs connected by a hinge or rigid bar are much more secure than handcuffs connected by a chain. Even with a key in hand it is difficult or impossible to reach the keyholes with it. In
1886-695: The risk of positional restraint asphyxia (a restraint-specific form of positional asphyxia ). Hogtying, also called the prone maximal restraint position or the hobble position , may make it somewhat more difficult for some people to breathe, especially after physical activity. Frequently, hog-tying has been performed on a person who has been violently resisting. Various mechanisms for sudden death while hogtied have been proposed, ranging from changes in chest movement from being handcuffed, to drug use, to pre-existing medical conditions such as obesity or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , to police and medical personnel using their body weight to compress both
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1932-449: The risk of using fisted hands together as a weapon increases with hands in front. Since handcuffs are only intended as temporary restraints, they are not the most complicated of locks. There are several ways of escaping from handcuffs: The above methods are often used in escapology . As most people's hands are larger than their wrists, the first method was much easier before the invention of modern ratchet cuffs, which can be adjusted to
1978-491: The same prohibition applies when the image of the handcuffs is pixelated. In Hong Kong , people being arrested and led away in handcuffs are usually given the chance by the policemen to have their heads covered by a black cloth bag. In Sri Lanka , women are generally not handcuffed by the police. The High Court in Windhoek , Namibia , prohibited in mid July 2020 the use of handcuffs under any circumstances, as it violates
2024-552: The transporting officers or has to be moved in a wheelchair. In some countries, prisoners are permanently shackled with legcuffs even when they are held in their cells. Such a long term use of leg shackles may soon result in pressure marks on the prisoner's ankles and will cause serious harm. Therefore, such a treatment of prisoners is commonly considered a cruel and unusual punishment. Some prisoners being transported from custody to outside locations, for appearances at court, to medical facilities, etc., will wear handcuffs augmented with
2070-590: The word to be used in metaphors, e.g.: In the 'handcuffs gesture' the arms are crossed at the wrists in front of the chest, to represent being handcuffed. Uses are: Physical restraint Physical restraint refers to means of purposely limiting or obstructing the freedom of a person's or an animal's bodily movement. Usually, binding objects such as handcuffs , legcuffs , ropes , chains , straps or straitjackets are used for this purpose. Alternatively different kinds of arm locks deriving from unarmed combat methods or martial arts are used to restrain
2116-419: Was in several hospitals and units at times for a decade with mental health issues, she said in some units she suffered restraints two or three times daily. Katharine Sacks-Jones director of Agenda, maintains trusts use restraint when alternatives would work. Sacks-Jones maintains women her group speak to repeatedly describe face down restraint as a traumatic experience. On occasions male nurses have used it when
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