Legal Implications of Taser Use and Prone Position on Excited Delirium Subjects

Using case law, this book explores the controversial issues associated with excited or hyperactive delirium with severe agitation, including the appropriate use of tasers, and the inhumane practice of applying bodyweight pressure on subjects by placing them face down in the prone position, depriving them of the ability to breathe.This study alerts society to the urgent need to treat excited delirium as a medical emergency, rather than a crime scene where a multi-agency collaborative effort can de-escalate and manage these hyperthermic and paranoid individuals allowing them an opportunity to live. It also argues that the reaction of some U.S. states, that are prohibiting the term "excited delirium" and preventing officers from getting adequately trained, can have devastating results by increasing municipal liability for failure to train. It also fails those individuals undergoing serious mental health crises by way of excited delirium or seizures, who need to be served and protected as per the social contract theory.Legal Implications of Taser Use and Prone Position on Excited Delirium Subjects will be of interest to legislators, attorneys, judges, police agencies, correctional facilities, and graduate-level students in criminal justice, law, and the social sciences.

About the Author

Vidisha Barua Worley is Professor of Criminal Justice at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas, U.S.A. and is a licensed attorney in the state of New York, U.S.A. and in India. Dr. Worley is the lead editor of a two-volume set of encyclopedia titled, American Prisons and Jails: An Encyclopedia of Controversies and Trends (2019). She has published extensively on civil liability of police and correctional officers for the inappropriate use of Tasers in the United States.