According to Amnesty International there have been at least 11 deaths caused by the use of the restraint chair. But some law-enforcement agencies point out that their officers are always at risk when they come in direct contact with inmates. For this reason, authorities have put a greater emphasis on protecting officers when they are in direct contact with inmates, even if that means causing prisoners more pain. According to journalist John Conroy, once the use of restraint chairs becomes routine so does abuse. If it is next to the handcuffs, next to the side arm, it is just as handy and will be used more often.
Normal people become torturers and they do it quite easily.
There are horror stories detailing how individuals brought into jails have been placed in the chairs and tortured. In 1996, Scott Norberg was brought into the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona, where he was placed into a metal restraint chair after acting in a bizarre fashion. According to eyewitnesses, officers gagged and continually used a stun gun on Norberg. A federal investigation into his death resulted in sharply restricting the use of both stun guns and restraint chairs. During the highly publicized protests at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle last December, police allegedly placed protesters in restraint chairs at the King County Jail while pepper spraying their eyes.