Homeland Security is running detention centers where women of color are often neglected or even abused, according to reports coming in from northern Arizona. It may be connected to an openly racist and hostile law enforcement culture there, but some say Texas immigration facilities are treating pregnant inmates the same way.

Some Texas jails, including in Dallas County, are still shackling pregnant inmates during labor and delivery, a violation of a state law that passed last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and an inmate advocacy group charged Thursday.

Via The Tennessean A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Nashville mother who triggered a national outcry after she was shackled during labor and after giving birth while in custody of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. U.S District Court Judge William Haynes Jr. will set a hearing for damages against Metro government and

by Ginette Gosselin Ferszt, associate professor, University of Rhode Island Collegeof Nursing, in the American Journal of Nursing Approximately 6% of women who enter American jails and prisons are pregnant. Many of them will go through labor, childbirth, and recovery with shackles around their wrists, ankles, or both. Some will be transported to the hospital in

from Justice Fellowship, 2011          The practice of shackling—the placement of restraints or chains around ankles, waist and hands—usually happens when pregnant women are transported from one area to another, transferred to a new prison or taken to a hospital for medical care. A more egregious form of shackling is that during

Monday, September 28, 2009, Waco Tribune New state regulations that went into effect this month regarding the treatment of inmates who are pregnant or have mental health issues mostly boil down to paperwork that local corrections officials say they already do. “Most of it is just an extra (box on a form) or item to keep

An awesome alliance got some help for pregnant inmates in Texas county jails. As of September 1, there are two new laws: HB 3653: requires all county and state facilities to STOP SHACKLING women inmates during labor and delivery; HB 3654: changed Jail Standards by now requiring county jails to have a MEDICAL CARE plan