The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Jail’s Nonlethal Weapon Use Gains Support

Once upon a time, when another of the endless racial brawls that afflict the Pitchess Detention Center would break out, sheriff’s deputies armed only with batons, protective gear and nerve would wade into the prisoners and restore peace the hard way.

But since 1986, deputies say, an innovative device that fits in the palm of the hand has made their job much less hazardous and often saved inmates from serious injuries--the “stingball” grenade.

The grenades, which are tossed from a distance into the jail’s large dorms, blast out a spray of hard-rubber pellets, designed to inflict pain but not to break the skin.

Rather than suffer more of the loud, stinging blasts, the prisoners almost always quit fighting, or at least slow down.

“It’s basically a distraction device,” said Pitchess Deputy Michael Riley. “The common reaction is that inmates hit the ground.”

From January to June 1996, the most recent period for which records are available, Pitchess deputies used 170 stingball grenades.

Along with other relatively new nonlethal devices, the grenades are credited with reducing the number of lawsuits against the county. And their use is accepted by civil liberties groups as better for inmates than old-fashioned clubbing or even shooting.

“If there are [safer weapons than the stingballs], I don’t know about them,” said Merrick Bobb, a county general council charged with implementing the 1992 Kolts Commission recommendations for sweeping reforms in the use of force by the Sheriff’s Department.

Bobb said that in early 1993, there were 361 use-of-force lawsuits against the department, and now there are about 170, in part because of nonlethal weapons such as stingball grenades, rubber bullets and bean-bag guns.

At Pitchess, a deputy no lower than the rank of sergeant must authorize the use of stingballs, which are manufactured by Defense Technologies of Rock Creek, Ohio.

If the grenades explode at the ideal height of about 8 feet in the air, they spray a 50-foot circle with 180 pellets.

The jail dorm’s low ceilings often cause the stingball to explode below the ideal 8 feet, or they hit the floor first, concentrating the blast of 3/8ths-inch pellets on the nearest inmates and missing others, Riley said.

Despite the less than ideal conditions, the grenades have caused only four injuries that needed medical attention--one to an inmate and three to deputies, he said. A lieutenant received a minor facial cut, one deputy suffered a bruised chest and another complained of hearing problems.

He said though the devices are generally effective, they often do not stop a riot by themselves, and deputies sometimes “still have to do it the old-fashioned way,” charging into jail dorms with batons.

Silvia Argueta, an ACLU attorney who monitors county jails, expressed qualified support of the grenades.

“If the Sheriff’s Department or any other police entity should use less-harmful means in order to prevent inmates from hurting themselves, we support it,” she said. “The only concern is that they not unduly use them.”

Argueta’s opinion was shared by Donald Specter, director of the Prison Law Office, an inmate civil rights group.

“I think there’s a place for these weapons. But their deployment should be strictly controlled,” he said.