Until then shackling even during labor was a common practice. If the federal facilities were so lacking, what could one really expect from county jails.Īs Ms.Sadler went on to discover, not until 2009 did the Texas Legislature pass a bill ( HB 3653), which was signed into law, severely restricting (not outright banning), the use of shackles on pregnant inmates during childbirth. When one considers the 400% increase in incarcerated women since the 1980’s, (more women are sentenced for drug-related offenses now than men), one can begin to grip the enormity of the issue. The report focused completely on federal prisons which have a better set of policies and regulations in place compared to state run county jails.īut it bears repeating that 49 out of 50 states did not even report pregnancies and their outcomes. Texas scored a C in pre-natal care, A- in shackling policies, A in alternatives to incarceration and a B+ in the composite grade. Even by the low standard of care for inmates one comes to expect from the US prison system, the conclusions are shocking.
The report graded each state on three areas: pre-natal care, shackling policies and alternatives to incarceration. As she read and researched, she discovered to her horror that according to a 2010 state-by-state report card titled Mothers Behind Bars, issued by the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project on the treatment of incarcerated pregnant women and their babies, nearly half the states received an overall failing grade, and over two thirds received a failing grade for their lack of pre-natal care.įorty-nine out of 50 states fail to even report all incarcerated women’s pregnancies and their outcomes 43 states do not require medical examinations as a component of pre-natal care and even though a Federal law banning shackling came into effect in 2008, 36 states still engage in the barbaric practice of shackling pregnant women, often with ankle, wrist and belly chains, before, after and sometimes even during labor. She knew they were most likely treated as criminals even if they were pre-trial but she wondered if their unborn children were getting a fighting chance at a healthy life. While most of us would move on to other thoughts, she began to wonder what percentage of this population was pregnant and how they dealt with being pregnant in jail. In particular, most women detainees are in there for minor misdemeanors related to poverty, substance abuse/possession or mental health issues. Not prisons, but county jails where a majority of the population is pre-trial detainees. Report by Kristin Sadler, June, 2012, graduate student in the school of Social Work, University of HoustonĪnalysis by Krishnaveni Gundu, researcher and writer for Texas Jail Project, September, 2012Įarlier this year, a 22 year old graduate student named Kristina Sadler, working on her Masters in Social Work at the University of Houston, found herself thinking about the plight of pregnant inmates in the county jails of Texas.
0 kommentar(er)
