Warning: The following article includes mentions of self-harm.
This is the second in a series of stories. Read the first story here.
CHARLESTON, Ill. – Brice Fritz was naked, strapped down to a chair in a jail cell when a staff member monitoring her via video delivered 80,000 volts of electricity through the stun cuff on her leg.
“I felt like I was being electrocuted,” Fritz told the Illinois Answers Project, recalling the incident at Coles County Jail in 2021. The cuff is a sort of shock collar for humans that the manufacturer describes as a wireless device to control detainees, typically used during court or transport.
Fritz, then 25, had been arrested on heroin and meth charges. She said she was in withdrawal that day, her period had started, she was bleeding, and jail staff did not allow her to shower.
She was on suicide watch, hitting her head repeatedly onto the ground, when staff put her in the chair with the cuff and stunned her, records show. She said the shock – which lasts five seconds and can leave burn marks – took her breath away and caused her to urinate on herself.
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