Many states routinely shackle pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery, citing “flight risk” when they’re taken to outside hospitals.
Despite sporadic complaints and occasional lawsuits, the practice of shackling prisoners in labor continues to be relatively common, state legislators and a human rights group said. Only two states, California and Illinois, have laws forbidding the practice.
The New York Legislature is considering a similar bill. Ms. Nelson’s suit, which seeks to ban the use of restraints on Arkansas prisoners during labor and delivery, is to be tried in Little Rock this spring.
The California law, which came into force in January, was prompted by widespread problems, said Sally J. Lieber, a Democratic assemblywoman from Mountain View.
“We found this was going on in some institutions in California and all over the United States,” Ms. Lieber said. “It presents risks not only for the inmate giving birth, but also for the infant.”
Leg irons and wrist shackles are common in the 23 states and federal corrections bureau where this is still allowed, either by law or by corrections-department policy. I’ve never been pregnant, but I’ve been in serious pain, and writhing often helps. It seems cruel to deny that kind of freedom of movement to a prisoner who is giving birth, especially since there’s a guard standing by in case she and her placenta try to make a break for it.
Corrections officials say they must strike a balance between security and the well-being of the pregnant woman and her child.
“Though these are pregnant women,” said Dina Tyler, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, “they are still convicted felons, and sometimes violent in nature. There have been instances when we’ve had a female inmate try to hurt hospital staff during delivery.”
It seems to me that shackling every inmate, then, isn’t the solution. A check bouncer isn’t likely to be violent, and a violent inmate could be given an opportunity to give birth free of the shackles, but with shackles at the ready should she actually try to hurt someone.
Many states justify restraints because the prisoners remain escape risks, though there have apparently been no instances of escape attempts by women in labor.
“You can’t convince me that it’s ever really happened,” Ms. Newell said. “You certainly wouldn’t get far.”
Yeah, really. Where are you going to go? You’re kind of occupied at that point, and surrounded by medical staff and guards. It doesn’t seem like the perfect time to hop off the table, trailing afterbirth and amniotic fluid, and head for the hills in a backless gown and booties.
Illinois enacted the first law forbidding some restraints during labor, in 2000. “Under no circumstances,” it says, “may leg irons or shackles or waist shackles[!!!!] be used on any pregnant female prisoner who is in labor.”
Before that, said Gail T. Smith, the executive director of Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, the standard practice was to chain the prisoner to a hospital bed. “What was common,” Ms. Smith said, “was one wrist and one ankle.”
The California law prohibits shackling prisoners by the wrists or ankles during labor, delivery and recovery. Until recently, prisoners from the Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, Calif., were routinely shackled to their beds after giving birth at the nearby Madera Community Hospital.
“These women are mostly in for minor crimes and don’t pose a flight risk,” said Ms. Lieber, who met with 120 pregnant women at the prison in August. “Madera Community Hospital is in one of the most remote parts of California. It’s hard to walk to a filling station, much less a bus stop.”
I’ve worked with enough cops and corrections officers on civil rights cases to know the security mindset. I understand it. But I do think they often follow the rules a little too rigidly, or fail to use more creative solutions, for fear it’ll bite them in the ass. And really, if I were in their position, I’d probably be worried about that, too. But taking a pregnant woman to the hospital while she’s in labor isn’t like taking another inmate to a court date or a deposition or a psych exam. There just isn’t the same potential for escape or violence.
And shackles in the wrong circumstances can cause harm. We had a lot of cases at the city where someone had suffered nerve damage from being handcuffed for long periods. The potential for damage when the prisoner is writhing and moving around while also trying to give birth is significant:
Arkansas has resisted an outright ban on restraints, though [Shawanna] Nelson’s case may change that.
Ms. Nelson was serving time for identity fraud and writing bad checks when she gave birth at age 30. She weighed a little more than 100 pounds, and her baby, it turned out, weighed nine and a half pounds.
The experience of giving birth without anesthesia while largely immobilized has left her with lasting back pain and damage to her sciatic nerve, according to her lawsuit against prison officials and a private company, Correctional Medical Services.
I’ve had sciatica. It’s no picnic. What reason could they have had to immobilize a nonviolent offender during labor and delivery against the wishes of her medical team? Arkansas’ solution to this, while the case is pending, is to use flexible nylon restraints rather than metal shackles. But that still raises a lot of questions about why these women are being routinely restrained at all when there’s never been a reported case of escape during delivery. But then, creative thinking isn’t a corrections department’s strong suit:
In most cases, people who have studied the issue said, women are shackled because prison rules are unthinkingly exported to a hospital setting.
“This is the perfect example of rule-following at the expense of common sense,” said William F. Schulz, the executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A. “It’s almost as stupid as shackling someone in a coma.”