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August 04, 2005
CA: Women Still Give Birth In Shackles
Tue, Aug. 02, 2005
EDITORIAL, ContraCosta Times, CA
Remove the shackles
A WOMAN IN LABOR writhes in pain on a hospital bed, and as she does, a shackle secures one of her ankles to the bed rail. It sounds like something out of a medieval chamber of horrors. But believe it or not, that's what happens when a female prisoner in California -- and in 20 other states -- gives birth.
Women inmates are routinely cuffed during transport from prison to the hospital, during most of their labor and immediately after childbirth. The ankle restraints aren't removed until the doctor decides that the woman has gone into "active" labor -- whatever that is supposed to mean. What it usually winds up being is the final, pushing stage.
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What possible reason could there be for this barbaric practice when at least one guard is in the delivery room watching an inmate at all times?
"Basically, we don't want them to escape -- that's the bottom line," says state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton. "It's part of our mission of public safety."
Well, we don't want them to escape either, but surely a trained prison guard can handle a single inmate in labor.
Under department guidelines, all prisoners, without exceptions, who leave state prisons for outside medical treatment are to be shackled and guarded by at least one officer.
We find it hard to believe that a prisoner going through labor is going to leap off the delivery table and flee, between contractions. True, these women are in prison because they have committed crimes -- some of them serious. But a guard who is incapable of keeping a pregnant woman in the throes of labor from fleeing needs to find another line of work.
This absurd logic must have come from the same rocket scientists who were paying vast sums of overtime for corrections officers to guard comatose inmates around the clock at taxpayer expense.
Fortunately, saner minds realize that this kind of treatment has no place in a civilized society. Besides increasing a pregnant woman's already significant discomfort, shackling can have harmful effects on the baby, who, incidentally did not commit a crime, and is already coming into the world with a major strike against him or her.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-San Jose, has introduced a bill that would ban the shackling of pregnant inmates, during transport from prison to the hospital and during delivery. The long overdue bill, now awaits action by the Senate. We support the bill and urge lawmakers to act quickly to put an end to this horrible practice.
Even the California Correctional Peace Officers' Association -- usually vehemently opposed to any loosening of inmate restrictions -- supports a change in policy, with exceptions only for high-risk inmates.
They too understand that it's not a matter of coddling criminals; it's a matter of basic human decency and common sense.
© 2005 ContraCostaTimes.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.contracostatimes.com
Posted by lois at August 4, 2005 08:48 PM