MICROWAVE WEAPON

'Pain beam' device soon to be used on inmates in LA County jail

Guards at the Los Angeles County jail complex in Castaic, California will be using a new nonlethal but painfully hot weapon to control the inmates.



The "Assault Intervention Device" will be used, when necessary, at Pitchess Detention Center where 3,700 inmates are housed. The 7and-a-half-foot-tall machine will be installed in a dormitory where 65 inmates are located.

"The device is controlled by a joystick and computer monitor and emits a beam about the size of a CD up to distances of about 80 to 100 feet. The wave travels at the speed of light and penetrates the skin up to 1/64 of an inch."

The weapon's technology was developed in secret by the military,and aims a focused, invisible millimeter wave of unbearable heat at a suspect. The pain stops as soon as the targeted subject moves away from the path of the beam's focus.

The device, developed by Raytheon, is being evaluated for a six-month period by the National Institute of Justice for possible use in jails nationwide.

This is a "smaller version of a technology originally developed by the military for use on the battlefield. The military's weapon, called the Active Denial System, can be put on a Humvee or truck, and researchers are also working on a aircraft-mounted version."

The smaller version creates pain on just a single part of the body, whereas the military version sends an all-encompassing heat sensation on the target's whole torso.