Women who give birth in prison in most states are regularly shackled, preventing them from moving about during labor, and as anyone knows who’s ever attended one, women almost always move and change position during birth. Although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has released a position saying that this is inhumane, only five states have outlawed the practice. New York state will soon sign a bill into law and become the sixth state to outlaw shackling during childbirth. Incarcerated women in Washington State may are not shackled during birth as corrections policies forbid it, although there is no law on the books banning the practice. Quote from the NYT article:
“It is unbelievable that in this day and age a child is born to a woman in shackles,” Mr. Erato [a husband of a woman who was shackled during birth who had committed a nonviolent crime] said. “It sounds like something from slavery 200 years ago.”
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.”
Clearly this is a controversial subject, as women who have been imprisoned are sometimes a violence risk, even if most are not. Yet, could there be other ways of handling the situation, with guards standing by? Is shackling inhumane treatment? Thought-provoking articles from Salon.com and the New York Times here and here.
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