CBS News : Most states ban shackling pregnant women in custody — yet many report being restrained
November 14, 2023
bout 40 states, including Georgia, have passed laws limiting the use of restraints such as handcuffs, leg restraints, and belly chains on pregnant people in law enforcement custody, according to a Johns Hopkins University research group. Laws that seek to improve treatment of pregnant women in jails and prisons have drawn bipartisan support, including the First Step Act, which was passed in 2018 and limits the use of restraints on pregnant people in federal custody. Yet advocates say they continue logging reports of law enforcement agencies and hospital staffers ignoring such prohibitions and allowing pregnant people to be chained, handcuffed, or otherwise restrained.
Topics: 2023news, Jail Conditions, Medical, Overcrowding
About 40 states, including Georgia, have passed laws limiting the use of restraints such as handcuffs, leg restraints, and belly chains on pregnant people in law enforcement custody, according to a Johns Hopkins University research group. Laws that seek to improve treatment of pregnant women in jails and prisons have drawn bipartisan support, including the First Step Act, which was passed in 2018 and limits the use of restraints on pregnant people in federal custody. Yet advocates say they continue logging reports of law enforcement agencies and hospital staffers ignoring such prohibitions and allowing pregnant people to be chained, handcuffed, or otherwise restrained.
And despite Texas’ shackling ban, in August 2022 an officer in Harris County, which includes Houston, chained Amy Growcock’s ankle to a bench in a courthouse holding area for hours.
“It was pretty painful,” said Growcock, who was eight months pregnant and worried about circulation being cut off in her swollen leg.
Growcock said her initial shackling in Houston was the first sign that officers weren’t equipped to handle pregnant people. She gave birth in a jail cell and nearly lost her son less than two weeks after her arrest. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards acknowledged that Growcock, who photographed her ankle in restraints, had been shackled. But the jail overseer admitted no other wrongdoing in her case, according to a memo the commission sent to the Harris County Jail.
“I felt like if I wasn’t getting treated right already, then the whole experience was going to be bad,” she said. “And it was.”
“I felt like if I wasn’t getting treated right already, then the whole experience was going to be bad,” [Growcock] said. “And it was.”
“People see laws like these, and they say ‘check.’ They don’t know how they are being implemented and if they are creating the outcomes intended,” said Ashley Lovell, co-director of the Alabama Prison Birth Project, a group that works with pregnant prisoners. Without oversight, these laws “are words on paper,” she said. “They don’t mean anything.”
Learn more : Teen Vogue Essay, Giving Birth in Jail Often Comes With Medical Neglect, Texas Jail Project FindsMedical groups, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, widely condemn shackling pregnant people, which they argue is unethical and unsafe because it increases the risk of falls, hinders physicians’ care, and endangers the fetus.
In 2017, Texas Jail Project advocated for mandatory personal recognizance bonds for pregnant people through HB 1314, which, unlike cash bonds, do not require defendants to pay money upfront. If it had passed, the legislation would have mitigated generational trauma for the nearly 300 to 500 pregnant people who are booked monthly into Texas county jails. 2023news