New "Laser" Weapon Debuts in LA County Jail

The 7 1/2-foot-tall “Assault Intervention Device,” which sheriff's deputies demonstrated Friday at the Pitchess Detention Center, emits an invisible beam that causes an unbearable sensation, reported the Daily News.

The device will be mounted near the ceiling in a unit housing about 65 inmates, sheriff's Cmdr. Bob Osborne of the sheriff' Technology Exploration Program told the newspaper.

“We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam,” said Osborne. “So that we have fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things.”

Deputies have tested the device on themselves and say the invisible beam is painful -- especially when it's not expected.

Read more in NBC Los Angeles...