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the-womanifesto:

Women in the U.S. who give birth while they are imprisoned do so chained to their hospital beds. Can you imagine giving birth while shackled down? We need legislation to change this within each state.

Yesterday, we saw another important step in this long march to a more fair and humane criminal justice system for pregnant woman and girls. A federal court issued preliminarily approval of a settlement of $4.1 million dollars to women held in the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois who alleged that they were shackled while in labor, despite constitutional protections and a state law that prevented such practices.

The trend in the federal courts and the court of public opinion is clear: it is no longer acceptable to shackle pregnant prisoners during childbirth. Many states have already moved to ban this routine practice and many more are poised to follow suit. Our challenge now is to ensure that these state laws are implemented, and that corrections officials and officers and medical personnel are trained to uphold them. As we saw in Chicago, a law was on the books for over a decade but Cook County Jail still persisted in shackling pregnant women and placing mothers and babies at risk. The county is now paying the price for violating the law. States and local governments around the country should take notice: follow the law now and end the dangerous and inhumane practice of shackling pregnant women during childbirth.