Dutch Restraint Bed - AKA The Bicycle

Submitted by Erica

The bed mattress  is shaped to ensure the strict restraint of the occupant. The  prisoner (patient),  normally naked, is placed on the bed and the arms are secured using the attached webbing straps. The legs are spread and again secured but this time with three straps. Often one leg is left loose and for this reason the bed has attracted the nickname of the bicycle. A canvas and leather chest restraint is used to prevent the occupant sitting up and this fastens with roller buckles at both the sides and the head of the bed. It you get an itch you can not scratch it. You are fed whether you like it or not . You are not released to urinate or defecate. When control is lost, the occupant is simply rinsed off with a hose. It is not unknown for a particularly disliked prisoner to be kept fully restrained in this way for three days or more. Foam padded helmets are additionally employed on mentally disturbed prisoners. Standing Orders dictate that a doctor must authorise the use of these beds but frequently this does not happen. Most of the directors of the institutions where these beds are used deny this of course, but each prison in Holland has them and there use is common, often excused by saying it is a stop gap measure for prisoner safety before they can be transported to a psychiatric institution.