Army Study Obtained by American Oversight Found ICE's Shock Gloves Cause Intense Pain and Fear; ICE Leaders Knew Before $16.7 Million Contract

Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders were aware of the findings of an Army study before signing a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of shock gloves in August, according to records obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and shared with The Associated Press (AP, as carried by CNN). The shocks had a profound impact on Army employees who played the role of combative prisoners during the exercise, which took place at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in October 2024. The authors wrote that “After experiencing the effects of the GLOVE, … participants stated just seeing the GLOVE was enough to make them want to comply,” and participants were left with “fatigue, soreness and excessive apprehensiveness to being shocked again,” the study found.

American Oversight executive director Chioma Chukwu said the assessment shows the gloves can cause “intense pain” and force compliance, and “It does not establish that they are safe.” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said ICE has not responded to an Aug. 27 letter from her and 15 other Democratic Senate colleagues. Eyes On Ice, analyzing the same file, writes that it is a 38-page limited user assessment, not a medical trial and not a safety clearance, and quotes it as saying the assessment “did not produce statistically relevant data that might be used to make predictions on efficacy, nor was it a technical test of the GLOVE and E-Band.” The contract itself is recorded in 2026-08-26–ice-awards-16-7m-compliant-technologies-shock-glove-contract and California’s ban in 2026-09-29–california-bans-electrical-shock-gloves-ice-dhs-refuses-comply.