Beam Me Up at the Los Angeles County Jail?

The Future of L.A. Jail Law Enforcement is Found in a Laser Beam

The future is right now and has landed on the doors of Los Angeles law enforcement. The latest and greatest gadget to hit the ground running is a non-lethal laser beam! The state-of-the-art weapon designed by Raytheon has been developed in the hopes to reduce prison violence.

Originally designed as a military device for crowd control, the Assault Intervention Device or (AID) works by emitting an invisible heat ray which penetrates the skin up to 1/64th of an inch and feels like a focused blast of hot air. The device has a range of between 80 to 100 feet and really packs a punch.

According to Mike Booen, Vice President of advanced security at Raytheon, he explains that that “No one can stand there for more than three seconds because it really hurts.” Which in turn, causes the person to get out of its way.

The Pitchess Detention Facility, a Los Angles County Jail in Castaic, California, which has at least 400 fights break out a year, is slated for the first 7 and 1/2 foot tall unit installment. With the AID, officials can now take immediate action without having to wait for reinforcements to arrive. All it takes is a joystick to control.

According to Command Bob Osborne of the Sheriff’s Department Technology Exploration Program, “We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam… so what we have is fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things.“

However, this new technology does not arrive without a steep price. The cost is hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials still believe the upside outweighs the price tag of the unit. If the device is successful after an initial 6 month run, officials hope to expand the product across the entire U.S.

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One response to “Beam Me Up at the Los Angeles County Jail?”

1. Jazzie30 writes:
   

   The purpose of bail is to assure the attendance of the defendant, when his or her presence is required in court, whether before or after conviction. Bail is not a means of punishing a defendant, nor should there be a suggestion of revenue to the government.

   @ August 27th, 2010 at 02:49