Pinioning.
In modern times it is normal to pinion the prisoner's hands either in front of them or more usually behind their back with either handcuffs or a leather strap. Some countries use additional straps for the arms or even elaborate leather harnesses for the arms and wrists, as in Kuwait. In long drop/standard drop hangings, the prisoner's legs are normally pinioned with a cord or strap around the ankles to prevent them getting their feet onto the sides of the trap when the doors fall. In Britain, as women's skirts got shorter in the 20th century, an extra strap was placed round the lower thighs to prevent the skirt billowing up as they dropped and exposing their underwear. Thigh straps were also used for men in some countries, notably in the USA.
For short drop and suspension hangings, the legs were and may still be left free. Iran typically shackles the condemneds legs.
Charles Campbell, who was hanged in Washington in May 1994, was strapped to a special collapse board (visible in the photo of the Walla Walla gallows, above) as he was not able to support himself at the end. Other prisoners have been hanged strapped to chairs, both they and the chair falling through the trap.

Modern hangings described.

Many countries carry out hanging executions in complete secrecy, e.g. Botswana, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore so details are hard to come by.There are however, modern hangings which have been reported in detail or even filmed.Compare these to a 1950's British hanging described in my History of Judicial Hanging in Britain.

A Kuwait hanging in 2004.
Three men who had been convicted of a particularly cruel honour murder of a little girl called Amna Al-Khaledi were hanged at the Nayef Palace in Kuwait City on Monday the 31st of May 2004.The prisoners were Marzook Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed, aged 25, Saeed Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed, aged 28, and 24-year-old Kuwaiti Hamad Mubarak Turki Al-Dihani. They were brought to the Nayef Palace at 8.45 on the Monday morning and were allowed time to prepare and pray before they were hanged.At about 9.45 they were led to the grey painted metal and wood gallows wearing regulation brown boiler suits and with their wrists and arms strapped behind them with leather straps. Here they were made to climb the steps up onto the platform some 10 feet above and were placed upon individual double trap doors.Each prisoner was allocated a two man execution team, wearing black uniforms and ski masks.Once on the trap a leather strap was placed around each mans ankles and a British style, leather covered eyelet noose placed over his head, held in place by a heavy rubber washer and followed by a black hood.They were given measured drops (of about 7 feet) and afterwards examined by doctors with stethoscopes to determine the time of death.Marzook Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed was pronounced dead after eight minutes, Hamad Al-Dehani took six minutes to die, and Saeed Saad Suleiman Al-Saeed expired in five minutes and 20 seconds.The time of death being stated as when the prison doctors could no longer detect an audible heartbeat.From the photographs and the length of drop it is likely that their necks were broken.There was no report of any of the men struggling after the drop fell and all seemed to become limp immediately.The aftermath of the execution was witnessed by over 1000 people, including Amnas relatives who were let into the compound to view the dangling bodies.The scene was photographed by press photographers for publication in the following days papers.Click here for a photograph.It is interesting to note that the time taken for these men to die is about the same as recorded in typical lethal injection executions in the USA.