Action | Amend Minimum Standards for Jails and Lockups to add requirements on restraint of pregnant offenders |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 9/27/2013 |
- It is cruel and unusual punishment to restrain a pregnant woman during labor and delivery. Restraining a woman during labor demonstrates a deliberate indifference to an inmate’s serious medical needs, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, running counter to long-established Supreme Court precedent protecting prisoners’ constitutional rights.
Little more needs to be said other than that restraining a woman during labor, deliver, and the post-partum period endangers both the mother and the child.