Quick Hit: Giving Birth in Chains
Check out RH Reality Check's Anna Clark's recent piece on the occurrence of incarcerated pregnant women who are shackled when giving birth. It gives a lot of insight to its legal status in various states as well as the work behind the anti-shackling movement.
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America should be ashamed of itself for the barbarism of it's prison system. Men and women are treated like dogs. Many are incarcerated for the crime of being born poor and underprivileged.
There needs to be a revamping of drug crime laws. Legalization is in order. This is absolutely a feminist issue.
Re: the article - anyone who didn't think that SHACKLING A WOMAN IN ACTIVE LABOR is cruel and unusual anything, let alone punishment - I'm just speechless. It makes me ill just to think about it.
Having never been pregnant could someone describe the problem with shackling a pregnant woman during labor please? Its hard to understand why I should be outraged when I don't see the practical impact.
The problem is ... you shackle animals, not people. In fact, I don't even think animals should be shackled.
Shackling someone should only be necessary if they're violent or an immediate threat to others. I suppose some women might "run away" while trying to give birth, depending on how desperate they are, but there are other ways to prevent that from happening. Shackling, to me, is a hideous symbol of state ownership of women's bodies, a total lack of respect for a person going through intense physical and emotional sensations/pain, lack of humanity, and an indicator of the anti-choice sentiment that the mother is trash/disposable/invisible and the baby needs to be whisked away and "saved." I can't imagine something that makes a person more irrelevant and invisible than shackling.
I wonder if these mothers are even allowed to hold their babies after birth. It's just fucking sick, especially considering many of these women are probably in prison for non-violent offenses spurred by poverty and/or addiction and need REHAB and JOBS and SUPPORT, not prison.
The article attached to the original post has some discussion of why it is a problem.
Briefly: labor can be more painful depending upon the mother's position. Being in the wrong position can add hours to labor, cause fetal distress, and cause injuries. Also, a mother's mental state contributes to her ability to withstand the rigors of labor, as well as influences her hormonal levels (certain hormones are necessary to facilitate birth).
Birthing requires the ability to move and to relax, or it can be an excruciating and traumatic event.
Labor itself is an extreamly difficult process that is so painful in itself. But imagine having to go through that pain in an position where you cannot move your arms or legs, or in some cases even arch your back. This causes even greater pain and also fetal distress.
In some cases it is likely that the baby could die as a result, and the physical and emotional impact of shacking alone is horrific (as one testimony stated that a woman had to under go surgery because of problems sustained as a result). There is simply no purpose to put a woman through this when she is already in much pain and stress as it is.
If you are unsure what goes on during labor (I am not being condescending please understand, obviously you are aware of the basics, but I mean more detail of exactly what happens any why a woman needs to be able to move in the very least, as well as what could go wrong) you should watch a video of a woman in labor perhaps on DiscoveryHealth, that will give you a good idea of why shackling would be so dangerous and stressful.
And to shackle someone because they passed a bad check..that enrages me. Its not like a woman is in any condition to run away while she is in full labor anyway (little busy having a baby to try escaping), but to shackle someone like an animal when tbey are not even a violent offender is unconscionable.
On the link posted in the artical it stated that women who are simply incarcerated as immigrants or other cicumstances, and have not even committed a crime would be subject to this process aswell. That terrifies me.
Regardless however, shackling itself is horrific and should never be allowed.
I would also like to add as a response to a commenter on the link posted for the original artical that really blew my mind:
------Now realized that Correctional Officers are trained NOT to know the specific crimes of inmates because it may affect their impartiality. That is why most Correctional Officers forgo what is seemingly common sense and follow rules and regulations to the letter, their trained that way.--------
THE ABOVE IS NOT MY OPINION. IT IS A QUOTE.
------------------------------------------------
Even if a correctional officer is not aware of the SPECIFIC crimes an inmate has committed, they are certainly aware of the degree of the offence. Maximum and Minimum security prisons are around for a reason, and those working at these facilities are of course aware that their inmates are either high or low risk inmates, have access to their criminal records, are aware of their sentence length and so on. Therefore an officer who for intance shackles an inmate in labor who is incarcerated for writing a bad check would have to know that she was low risk, had a short sentence, and her crime. While I still do not believe shackling is right at all, this is an important fact to point out to truly understand the issue.
And on the subject. Why should it matter whether or not a person is "trained" to shackle someone or not? Do we not have free will anymore? Are we not able to think for ourselves or act with a conscience? Are we forbidden for standing up for what is right and allowed to use the unfortunatly famous "I was just following orders" line, used by the Nazis, to excuse our actions? This is unconscionable.