The jail recently obtained a pair of electric shock gloves known as Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, or GLOVE, which is a safer and more sustainable alternative to using a Taser in close quarters like a jail cell, Jail Administrator Shawna Dencklau told the Crime Stoppers board on Friday morning.

Dencklau and Jailer Anthony Valenti attended Friday’s meeting to give the Crime Stoppers board a demonstration of the new device.

“No facility in Iowa utilizes these, so we’re actually one of the very first ones to have them,” Dencklau said, noting that she believes the Humboldt County Jail also recently purchased a set. “Anything we do in the jail has to be approved by the Iowa Jail Inspector, and he is behind these wholeheartedly after I’ve trained him and zapped him with them on Tuesday.”

During its October meeting, Webster County Crime Stoppers approved a $2,300 donation to the jail for the purchase of the electric shock gloves from Compliant Technologies of Lexington, Kentucky. The donation also funded the purchase of an E-Band Restrictor made by the same company.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert Webster County Jail Administrator Shawna Dencklau shows off the new electric shock gloves the jail purchased with a donation from Webster County Crime Stoppers. Dencklau gave the Crime Stoppers board a demonstration of the gloves on Friday morning.

“These are going to be a deterrent, basically a distraction,” Dencklau said..

She said one of the biggest concerns with using a Taser in a small jail cell is the inmate falling and “cracking his head” or injuring themselves in other ways.

“So we’re hesitant to use Tasers most of the time, because we have to outweigh the risks of using them,” she said.

The GLOVE, when touched to human skin, will generate an output of 210 volts of electricity, intensifying up to 320 volts, depending on how long it is held to the skin. Dencklau said the effect of the device is to subdue the inmate, not to completely disable them like a Taser would.

“Unlike the Taser, this only going onto the nerves and the body part,” she said. “It does not go into the tissue or the muscle … there’s no need to take (the inmate) out to the emergency room to have them checked out or anything like that.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert Webster County Jail Administrator Shawna Dencklau and Jailer Anthony Valenti demonstrate the new electric shock gloves purchased by the jail with funds donated by the Webster County Crime Stoppers. The gloves will be used as a compliance tool with inmates who are behaving unruly or violent toward staff or other inmates.

Once the glove is released from the skin, the shock stops and the recipient is left with a tingling sensation.

All of the correctional officers at the Webster County Jail have been trained and certified in using the GLOVE, which includes experiencing being “zapped” by it, Dencklau said. The gloves will begin being carried by correctional officers on duty starting on Monday. Because the set does not need to be together to be used, two officers will be able to carry a GLOVE on each shift.

“Hopefully it’s not something we use everyday, but it’s something we can use to better protect ourselves,” Dencklau said.

Dencklau said the E-Band Restrictor, which goes around the ankle, will be useful for when officers have to take inmates out of the jail for trials and doctors appointments, when the inmate cannot be shackled. She said it will also be useful for inmates who cannot be shackled because they may have a prosthetic limb. In the case of the E-Band, the inmate would wear it around their ankle and the correctional officer would have a remote and would push a button on the remote to set off a zap the same intensity as the gloves, in the event the inmate attempted to escape or became violent.

Dencklau shared her gratitude to the Webster County Crime Stoppers board for donating the funds to purchase the new devices.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert Webster County Jail Administrator Shawna Dencklau and Jailer Anthony Valenti demonstrated the new electric shock gloves and ankle band at Friday's Webster County Crime Stoppers Meeting. The devices were purchased with funds donated from Crime Stoppers. Pictured are Dencklau, Crime Stoppers Secretary Roxy Leadley, Crime Stoppers Treasurer Craig Patterson and Valenti.

“These are going to be an excellent tool for us to use,” she said.

After Dencklau’s demonstration, several members of the board volunteered to be shocked by the gloves.