Posted on 07/01/2005 10:06:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Seven high-security federal prisons will be getting lethal electrified fences in a $10 million project intended to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed.
The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones already used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver a shock if touched once, and a fatal jolt if touched a second time.
The federal Bureau of Prisons expects to award contracts for the fences in late fall, spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said.
"This new technology will serve as new security and help us to deter potential escapes, allow us to operate more cost-effectively by reducing the guard towers, the staffing at some of our guard towers," Billingsley said Thursday.
State prisons in Boscobel, Wis.; Sterling, Colo.; and Florence, Ariz., operate stun-lethal fences, and several states, including California, have lethal-only prison fences.
Judy Freyermuth, executive director of the Federal Prison Policy Project, a nonprofit prison reform group in Atlanta, predicted the hoped-for savings will never materialize.
"How many times have you read of an escape from a federal prison? None," said Freyermuth. She also said she fears the fences will cause accidental injuries.
Stun-lethal fences were pioneered in South Africa and used to protect utility buildings and other infrastructure, said Mike Allen, president of Crowley Co. in Minneapolis. Crowley is part of a team of companies putting together a bid for the federal-prison job.
Allen said he is unaware of any deaths or injuries caused by a lethal or stun-lethal prison fence in the United States. He described them as no less humane than the shoot-to-kill orders given to guards when inmates are escaping.
"If they come up and attempt to make any kind of escape, they'll get knocked on their tail end first, and it will literally knock them down because it's enough juice to do so," Allen said. "Theoretically, that would have knocked some sense into their head not to come at it again."
The Bureau of Prisons plans to install the fences at prisons in Terre Haute, Ind.; Pine Knot, Ky.; Pollock, La.; Tucson, Ariz.; Hazelton, W.Va.; and two prisons in Coleman, Fla. The charged barriers will be placed between existing parallel chain-link fences.
Arizona has encountered no problems with an 8,000-volt stun-lethal fence it installed around the maximum-security section of its Florence prison last August, said Corrections Department construction manager Tony Zelenak. The fence is at the top of a 17-foot-high concrete wall and had initially been conceived as a lethal-only barrier.
"At the last minute our director said, `Try to stun them and then go after the kill,'" Zelenak said. "That's what we've done, but it's not tested yet."
California's prison system had problems with wildlife getting caught by its 20-plus lethal-only fences. It responded by draping the fences in light netting, installing anti-perch devices and building small-animal tunnels, said spokeswoman Terry Thornton.
"We have had no escapes through an electrified fence, none," she said. "They work."
Blah, bring back the "dead line".
Awww... how sweet. Don't send a Hallmark card, build an electric fence... :-)
OR we could simply enforce existing laws against those who employ illegals.
You beat me to it!!
... to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed
AFAIK, almost all prisons have a "dead line", even juvenile ones. This is just our society getting cheaper and cheaper and fat cats making money. I mean, guards are paid what, $10-13 per hour? And the prisons are too cheap to pay that??? Ridiculous!
Coupled with land mines, predator(armed)patrols, heat/ motion detectors, plowed tracking strips, etc., the minutemen could stay home!
OR we could simply enforce existing laws against those who employ illegals.
They ALL work for me!!
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