'Deputies have tested the device on themselves and say the beam is painful'

From Authorities at Castaic jail poised to use Assault Intervention Device by C.J. Lin, Daily News:

Guards trying to break up fights between inmates at a Castaic jail will be armed with the hottest nonlethal weapon on the market next week.

The 7½-foot-tall Assault Intervention Device emits a focused, invisible ray that causes an unbearable heating sensation in its targets – hopefully stopping inmates from fighting or doing anything other than trying to get out of its way, sheriff's officials said.

The device, unveiled Friday at Pitchess Detention Center, will be mounted near the ceiling in a dormitory housing about 65 prisoners, according to Commander Bob Osborne of the Sheriff's Department Technology Exploration Program.

"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," Osborne said. "So that we have fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things."

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

"I equate it to opening an oven door and feeling that blast of hot air, except instead of being all over me, it's more focused," Osborne said. "And you begin to feel this warming feeling, and then you go 'Yow, I need to get out of the way."'

The pain can be stopped by moving out of the beam's path, which targets do instinctively.

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