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Kristin Davis
Q: 

Should women prisoners be shackled during labor/birth?

By July 20, 2009 - 11:46am
 
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I read an article in the Sunday New York Times yesterday about women inmates in New York prisons being shackled/chained while giving birth and found it so sad. I think it must be horrible enough to give birth while in prison, but to have chains around your waist, your angles shackled and your wrists handcuffed to a bed would be unthinkable. What .... do they think that a 9-month pregnant woman in labor is going to jump out of bed, run off and attempt a daring prison escape? And how awful for an innocent newborn child to be brought into the world with the mom in that kind of trauma. Apparently, there is legislation pending in New York to bar the shackling of women during labor and birth. I wonder if other states allow this to happen as well.

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alysiak

I also see no logic in shackling a woman in labor. She has enough to deal with, and I seriously doubt she'd be thinking about escape or attack.

July 20, 2009 - 5:07pm

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