What are long-chain handcuffs for?

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Long chain handcuffs are for for use on people who have been on the double cheeseberger diet to long there wrists dont come together from behind like most people due to belly expantion so haveing a long chain handcuffs you dont have to double cuff.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Long chain handcuffs are for for use on people who have been on the double cheeseberger diet to long there wrists dont come together from behind like most people due to belly expantion so haveing a long chain handcuffs you dont have to double cuff.

Long chain are for use on people who have been on the double cheeseburger diet so long, their wrists won't come together from behind, like most people. Due to belly expansion, having a long chain handcuff to use, makes so one won't have to double cuff

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

The extended chains are used as briefcase -to- wrist attachments.

...And the REALLY long chain cuffs are used as bull-tethers or "gang" chain attachments.

...And the SUPER custom long chain versions could at least in theory, be used for jumping-rope.



"It's better to be asmartass than adumbass" --Sasha Grey

Hope this helps,
--Vince

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Thanks, guys. I hadn't considered the whole "too fat for handcuffs" angle. The obesity epidemic must be getting pretty bad if custom handcuffs are being made. The gang-chain thing hadn't occurred to me either. To an outsider looking in (I'm Irish) American prisons and police seem to use chains a lot, but I'm thinking more and more that it's a purely logistical thing. After all, if you need to move six people from one place to another, some of them quite dangerous and cranky, but you don't have twelve trained and equipped officers to escort them, what are you going to do? shackling them and chaining them together might seem a bit harsh, but at the end of the day, no one's liver is eaten with fava beans...

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Also, depending on the time period, people were a lot smaller once. So a a long chain handcuff could have been used as an under sized leg iron. More recently oversized handcuffs have been used as short leg irons.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Really short leg irons.

Also, I remember seeing a picture once of a schoolroom in what I'm pretty sure was a juvenile prison. The inmates were cuffed and shackled, but the cuffs had long chains. I suppose that's another use. I would never have compared school to jail again after that...

Oh, another question. I've heard of a transport device which consists of a normal pair of handcuffs and shorter than average leg irons joined by a chain. The thing is, the chain it too short to let the person wearing it stand up. It's supposedly for situations when a prisoner is sitting down, and isn't expected to get up or move for a while.

I wasnt to know, are these really used by law enforcement, or are they just made for the BDSM crowd?

Thanks.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

It was the American Handcuffs L-300 "Autorestraints". Now discontinued. But I don't know it they have been often used.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Liam asked about a device that police have used for hogtying a prisoner. Someone said that the manufacturer has discontinued that device. The Chicago Model 3400 is a similar device. Excerpt from on on-line retailer for this item:
"High security transport and control device that replaces hog-tying prisoners and prevents sudden in-custody death. Mobility is safely reduced. Kicking of people or objects (such as squad car windows) is safely eliminated by the special ergonomic design. Chicago model X55 NIJ approved Stainless steel handcuffs attached to reduced link Model 2200 leg irons via a 20" chain."

There was also a question about whether police use this gear. My source says that it was a standard item but went out of use (for hogtying if not for prisoner transport with hands in front) because of (unfounded) fears of positional asphyxia (and well-founded fears of law-suits). I quote again with my additions in parentheses:
Until the mid-1990s, use of "hogtie" restraints was common. In the hogtie position, the prisoner is placed face down on the ground, his wrists and ankles bound (or chained) behind his back and then tied together by a rope or cord (or, linked by a chain). This type of restraint began to fall in(to) disuse when it was alleged that sudden death could be produced utilizing this position and type of restraint. Numerous civil suites were filed in regard to prisoners dying while hogtied. It was alleged that securing an individual in this position caused hypoventilatory respiratory failure, i.e., positional asphyxia. (My training manual or officer said to roll the prisoner up on one shoulder when hogtied to take the pressure off the chest, especially for obese people, to avoid asphyxia.) In experiments involving high-intensity physical activity followed by hogtie restraint, Chan et al. demonstrated that, while there was impairment of respiratory activity, it "did not result in clinically relevant changes in oxygenation or ventilation." (Forensic Pathology, Second Edition, DiMaio & DiMaio)

Anyone want to volunteer to repeat the experiment?



Ted Shepherd.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

"shackling them and chaining them together might seem a bit harsh, but at the end of the day, no one's liver is eaten with fava beans..."

That was one of my all-time favorite handcuff escape scenes in cinema. Here the Smith & Wesson model 100-L seemed quite appropriate as Hannibal was to be "securely" shackled to his holding cell - ha!

Often times the motion picture industry will employ a long chain variant when it wouldn't be appropriate to do so. A prime example of this technique comes from one of my all-time favorite films, "Who'll Stop The Rain," in which Merchant Marine and martial artist Ray Hicks (Nick Nolte) in cahoots with John Converse (Michael Moriarty) turn the tables on a couple of government-hired stooges, and actually cuff one of them with his arms wrapped around the toilet bowl!

Cheers!
Jason

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Reminds me of a movie I saw once... I think it had C Thomas Howell. In the movie he goes to kill this guy in a gas station. Inside he has a modest cuff collection on display behind the counter. He points out that he owns the pair that was used on Ted Bundy at his execution. Later in the scene Howell swipes the Bundy cuffs and chains the gas station owner to the toilet. There's a tennis ball and a can of Raid to follow, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

These are also used in booking areas where prisoners "sit and wait". The long chain cuffs are used to secure prisoners as they sit on benches there, making them somewhat comfortable but preventing them from getting up and walking around. The long cuffs are attached to metal brackets near these benches and usually only one cuff is put on. Also in correctional facilities where inmates use pay phones, one cuff is attached to an anchor on the wall and the inmate is cuffed with the other, allowing them to use the phone and have some freedom of movement but not allow them to just walk away and do whatever they want.

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

In earlier times esp. in the west where horse was the mode of transpiration it would be harder to have your prisoner ride and direct his horse with hands close together !

LK D~D

Pretty basic question, I know, but it seemed like the best place to ask. I guess they wouldn't be made if there wasn't a demand for them, but what exactly are they FOR? I presume they wouldn't be used on a violent prisoner, or anyone who might try to use the chain as a grrrote, but if someone's that trustworthy, why would you need to handcuff them at all? When would police or prison guards actually use them?

Yet another, perhaps more economical application of the long chain variant, is often used when transporting prisoners via railcar, thus precluding the need to remove the restraint from the seat post. This variant utilizes a single handcuff affixed to an appropriate length chain terminating in a Martin link or similar. The following is a Czech example from Cuffsland.