by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center
Today our colleagues at the Rebecca Project for Human Rights announced that the United States Marshals Service has changed its policy on restraining pregnant prisoners. You may not know this, but pregnant prisoners have been shackled, even during labor, placing both mother and child at risk. If you are trying to imagine what this experience would be like, you can read a really compelling description here. The new policy states in part:
Restraints should not be used when compelling medical reasons dictate, including when a pregnant prisoner is in labor, is delivering her baby, or is in immediate post-delivery recuperation.
. . .
If a pregnant prisoner is restrained, the restraints used must be the least restrictive necessary to ensure safety and security. Any restraints used must not physically constrict the direct area of the pregnancy.
I am of course pleased with the change in policy, and appreciative of the effort that the Rebecca Project and its coalition partners put forth to get it. But then I realized that it is so normal to treat prisoners inhumanely, that getting any policy that acknowledges their humanity has to be “celebrated” as an affirmative “victory.”
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