Bureau of Prisons bans shackling of pregnant inmates

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has finally done something right. They recently updated their policies to bar the shackling of pregnant inmates in federal prisons in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Years ago, when I became involved with Amnesty International's campaign to stop violence against women, I first learned that pregnant inmates in U.S. prisons were often shackled during labor.

I remember telling my friend Ed about it. Ed is king of the witty one-liners, and responded in his typical fashion: "They should probably shackle all women in labor," referring to the stereotype of the pregnant woman in pain losing control and lashing out during childbirth.

Humor aside, in reality the shackling of women in labor is cruel, and can be dangerous. Here is just one of several accounts from Amnesty's report "Not part of my sentence" -- Violations of the human rights of women in custody, from a woman who was imprisoned on drug charges:

I told the nurse that my water broke, and the officer took off the handcuffs so that I could put on the hospital gown. I was placed on a monitoring machine with the leg shackles still on. I was taken into the labour room and my leg was shackled to the hospital bed. The officer was stationed just outside the door. I was in labour for almost twelve hours. I asked the officer to disconnect the leg iron from the bed when I needed to use the bathroom, but the officer made me use the bedpan instead. I was not permitted to move around to help the labour along.

I was given an epidural, and I carefully moved into a sitting position while dealing with the leg iron. While the needle was still in my back, I felt a strong contraction and I knew that the baby was coming. When I told the nurse, she told me not to push and said that the baby wasn't coming yet. I asked for the doctor and worked the leg chain around so that I could lay down again.

The doctor came and said that yes, this baby is coming right now, and started to prepare the bed for delivery. Because I was shackled to the bed, they couldn't remove the lower part of the bed for the delivery, and they couldn't put my feet in the stirrups. My feet were still shackled together, and I couldn't get my legs apart. The doctor called for the officer, but the officer had gone down the hall. No one else could unlock the shackles, and my baby was coming but I couldn't open my legs.

So it's not only inhumane treatment of the mother, it's dangerous for the innocent child as well.

In the same Amnesty report, Dr. Patricia Garcia of North Western University's Prentice Women's Hospital explains the dangers as follows:

Women in labour need to be mobile so that they can assume various positions as needed and so they can quickly be moved to an operating room. Having the woman in shackles compromises the ability to manipulate her legs into the proper position for necessary treatment. The mother and baby's health could be compromised if there were complications during delivery, such as haemorrhage or decrease in fetal heart tones. If there were a need for a C-section (caesarian delivery), the mother needs to be moved to an operating room immediately and a delay of even five minutes could result in permanent brain damage for the baby. The use of restraints creates a hazardous situation for the mother and the baby, compromises the mother's ability post-partum to care for her baby and keeps her from being able to breast-feed.

Besides, it's unlikely that a woman in labor is going to try to escape, let alone get very far.

Fortunately, the Bureau of Prisons has finally seen the light. Kudos to them.