Action | Amend Minimum Standards for Jails and Lockups to add requirements on restraint of pregnant offenders |
Stage | NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 2/29/2012 |
I am appalled to learn that female prisoners can be shackled during labor and delivery. Having borne six children, I cannot understand, except possibly under extraordinary circumstances, that there is any need to inhibit the mother's ability to give birth as normally as medically indicated.
Walking with shackles in late pregnancy cannot be healthy for the mother whose body needs to compensate for the pressure of the unborn baby in her uterus.
Please respect the lives of pregnant prisoners and their babies by repealing this unnecessary and dehumanizing regulation.