McHENRY, Ill. – Vernon L. Brooks Jr. was distraught. Forced into a chair in a jail cell with a black mesh hood over his head, he panicked as he felt officers tighten straps like tourniquets around his ...

Madison County’s own restraint chair policy includes instructions from Safety Restraint Chair Inc., which makes the chairs used by many Illinois jails. The instructions say detainees should not be ...

Warning: The following article includes mentions of self-harm and suicide. Samantha Slecka spent the better part of three days strapped down to a chair in Madison County Jail in the summer of 2022. It ...

The Illinois Answers Project is Illinois’ nonpartisan investigations and solutions journalism news organization. It is published by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Better Government Association, Illinois’ ...

A new report from the Iowa ombudsman accuses two jails of using restraint chairs to confine inmates for long periods, sometimes for punishment. The Iowa Office of Ombudsman investigated four inmate ...

There is a new multimillion-dollar settlement that adds to other big settlements nationwide in KMBC 9’s ongoing RESTRAINED investigation into the use and misuse of restraint chairs. Family and ...

An Illinois Answers Project investigation into the use of restraint chairs in county jails raised questions about how Champaign County documents, tracks and reports use of the devices. Now, the ...

The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced. State correctional officials should tighten their requirements for restraining unruly jail inmates and ...