Nevada inmate shackled before giving birth sues

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Nevada inmate shackled before giving birth sues

By Timothy Pratt
LAS VEGAS | Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:51pm EDT

(Reuters) - A former prison inmate who says she was shackled at the ankles in an ambulance while in labor prior to the birth of her daughter despite the objections of medical personnel sued the Nevada Department of Corrections on Wednesday.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, cited what it described as shocking indifference to "wholly obvious, serious medical needs" after the woman's ankles were shackled before and after giving birth in October.

The woman, Valerie Nabors, was being held at the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center in North Las Vegas for trying to steal about $300 in casino chips, a nonviolent crime, when she went into labor. Nabors, 30, has since been released.

The lawsuit, which alleges violations of state law and Nabors' constitutional rights, said that after she went into labor, guards ran to the ambulance in which she was transported to the hospital and shackled her ankles together, despite protests by ambulance personnel.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/21/us-usa-shackles-nevada-idUSBRE85K04F20120621

[FarPoint]

1. That is procedure for transporting all inmates...regardless.

Even if an inmate is in the ICU, comatose and on a ventilator...they are shackled. I don't think this will change. Security will always take the lead on this issue. Technically, they only needed to shackle one lower extremity I believe, so the ankles together maybe the tipping point for the law suit.

[Stargazer09]

2. I've never tried to give birth...

...with my ankles tied together. Seems like it would be nearly impossible to do it without causing significant pain. I hope that poor woman gets a huge settlement.