Restraints

Staying with the idea of trapping I want to see how us humans restrain someone to gain a physical advantage over them

The obvious example is a Straitjacket, typically used in mental asylums to restrain the inmates from causing harm to others and mainly themselves. So this is actually an example of when people have needed to gain an advantage just for safety reasons, defence rather than potential offence. The garment is shaped very much like a normal jacket but with extra long arms. The sleeves are typically sewn shut at the ends - a significant restraint in itself because it restrains the use of the hands. The arms are then folded across the front, with the ends of the sleeves wrapping around to faster or tie behind the back. The straitjacket can cause tremendous pain as blood runs to the elbows, as circulation and movement is limited and can cause swelling. Due to the reputation of being hard to escape from, it has become a favourite of escape artists, with the current record at 18.8 seconds

As you can imagine the idea of restraining someone provokes exploitation and often torture. An example of which being the shocking images leaked from Guantanamo Bay, a detainment facility of the United States located in Cuba. Mainly complaints have been published by former detainees about the traumatic time spent in Guantanamo. Three British prisoners, now known in the media as the Tipton Three were released in 2004 without charge, The three have alleged on going torture, sexual degradation, forced drugging and religious persecuation being committed by U.S forces. Detainee Mehdi Ghezali have claimed that he was the victim of repeated torture, Omar Deghayes alleges he was blinded by pepper spray during his detention, Juma Al Dossary claims he was interrogated hundreds of times, beaten, tortured with broken glass, barbed wire, burning cigarettes and David Hicks also made allegation of torure and mistreatment in Guantanamo Bay but as part of his plea bargain Hicks withdrew the allegations

Looking at these two very extreme examples of restraint I want to take the route of simple restraint, that given by a straitjacket - a means of restraining someone with the potential of offence but not the physical act of harming them