Victory: No More Shackles on Pregnant Prisoners
We did it. After years of work from the ACLU of California and our allies, dangerous shackles and restraints can no longer be used on pregnant women in our state’s prisons and jails. Last week Governor Brown signed AB 2530, authored by Assemblymember Atkins, after it passed the legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In 2005 California became one of the first states to prohibit the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women during labor, delivery, and recovery after childbirth. Now, we can proudly say that California has taken another step forward to protect the health of incarcerated women – this time by prohibiting shackling throughout pregnancy.
In 2010, I teamed up with other legislative novices to try to extend the law. It seemed obvious to us: pregnant women are the most vulnerable and the least threatening in the prison system and should rarely, if ever, be restrained.
Every legislator, reporter, and average person we spoke with agreed. In fact, the legislature unanimously supported the bill two years in a row but, each year, law enforcement found a new reason to oppose. Lobbyists argued that they couldn’t create standards for how women were transported, that it was too expensive and unnecessary. We tried to accommodate the opposition, yet the two previous versions of the bill were vetoed, first by Governor Schwarzenegger and then by Governor Brown.
http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom-prisoners-rights-womens-rights/victory-no-more-shackles-pregnant-prisoners
= new reply since forum marked as read
