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Prison officers to use Tasers on violent inmates as assaults soar

Prison officers to use Tasers on violent inmates as assaults soar

Times11 hours ago
A prisoner lies on the floor in the gym as three inmates batter him with pickaxe handles, threatening to kill him.
Seconds later, the three attackers are sprawled motionless, having been shot with 1,500 volts of electricity from Tasers fired by eight specialist prison officers.
Luckily for the four 'prisoners', they are not actually in custody, They are among the elite unit of prison officers taking part in role play during their final training sessions before being sent to prisons across England and Wales, equipped with Tasers.
From Monday, prisoners who misbehave face being tasered after Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, authorised the use of the devices in prisons for the first time in an attempt to combat spiralling violence in Britain's overcrowded prisons.
Highly trained specialist officers from the operational response and resilience unit (ORRU) will be equipped with the T7 model, which can hit targets 24 feet away. The weapons are powered with 50,000 volts, although they do so at about two milliamps, which mean they hit with a force of 1,500 volts of electricity.
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