“I’ve got to say that I was pretty horrified by so much of what I saw,” said Michele Deitch, a distinguished senior lecturer at the University of Texas, where she directs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab.
That policy resource center focuses on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody. Deitch has spent years there researching and writing best practices and standards for use of force. She was one of two experts hired by KHOU to review use of force reports.
“Head strikes should be employed extremely rarely, extremely rarely, only when there's an imminent risk of seriously, serious bodily harm or injury. They should really be thought of closer to a form of deadly force,” Deitch said.
Deitch said head strikes can cause concussions, broken bones, brain trauma, eye injuries and more.