Excited-Delirium asks:

“Do prisons have to publicly report their use and misuse of the taser? Or are they permitted to use them for purposes of torture and pain compliance without any oversight whatsoever? Do we only hear about it when inmates die?”

Interesting question. Ive seen torture in juvenile facilities, so I imagine it happens in adult facilities also. One reform school (where I worked) had a bed, with the mattress removed, and a metal flat spring. Children (as young as 12) were strapped to this device and electricity (provided by an ignition coil) was sent through the spring causing such pain as to contort small bodies in unbelievable ways.

I assume there are sadists in adult facilities also!

Allowing people to believe that using certain things like tasers and pepper spray are benign means of crowd control, encourages their use merely to control everyone even those involved in none threatening protest.

I am sorry that I didn’t make a note of the evil congress person who authored the spraying of pepper spray into the eyes of passive protestors in his office. And, I haven’t forgotten the hyped new microwave to make people believe they are on fire. All of these things are being used and going to be used not just on criminals, but on ordinary citizens trying to get their elected and appointed officials attention when these officials are being bullying and working against their interests.

It is not a good idea.

The purpose of your retort is that the taser works off of “near” lethal amperage?  The time the taser is applied and where it is applied also must be factored. 
Fatal ratings are from 0.006-0.2 amps or 6ma to 200ma passed across the heart for 1-3 seconds. 

You must also factor in the relative health condition of the person shocked, condition of the heart and the sodium content of the blood.  Additionally the external resistance of the body is high (~300K) when dry and low (~30K) when sweaty, which factors into the level of the amperage encountered. 
Given that fact that there was a struggle before the inmate was tasered, his external resistance was probably low; being in a mostly dormant state he was most likely in poor health and guards train themselves to “shoot” center mass which equates to very close proximity to the heart.  All of these things should equal to near fatal results. 

Though the design of the taser is not to stimulate the heart but to neutralize the nerve endings and thereby locking the muscles temporarily.  It may be necessary to limit the number of shocks per deployment of the wires.  Additional shocks could result in fatalities.

“He was a threat!”

Ah, he was already in jail.

“He was high on cocaine and booze and had been up all night partying!”

See above.

“The X26 taser is only 2 mA (average) which is perfectly safe.”

Misleading. It is 151 mA RMS which some may claim is perfectly dangerous (and seems to match the apparent death rate). Household power is 115 volts RMS, but ZERO volts average. Do you think that your power bill based on average or RMS?

Do prisons have to publicly report their use and misuse of the taser? Or are they permitted to use them for purposes of torture and pain compliance without any oversight whatsoever? Do we only hear about it when inmates die?

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