Cruel and unusual punishment?
We were as shocked as anyone by a New York Times editorial Wednesday describing the injuries suffered by a pregnant prison inmate who was shackled hand and foot to her hospital bed while doctors delivered her baby. We were even more dismayed to learn that, despite its patent barbarity, shackling female inmates during labor and delivery is allowed under the laws of 40 states.
Naturally our next thought was to wonder whether Maryland was among those states. A quick call to the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services confirmed our worst fears: Maryland has no law barring the practice and leaves it entirely up to corrections officials to decide whether to shackle a pregnant inmate in the throes of labor and delivery.
Raquel Guillory, the public information officer for the Maryland Attorney General's Office, sent us a copy of the relevant statute. It states that the managing official of the correctional facility shall "[at] a reasonable time before the anticipated birth . . . have the inmate transferred from the correctional facility to another facility that provides comfortable accommodations, maintenance, and medical care under supervision and safeguards that the managing official determines necessary to prevent the inmate's escape from custody."
That may sound relatively benign until you realize that the "safeguards" used to prevent an inmate from fleeing can include chaining a pregnant woman to her hospital bed so tightly that she can't even move her body enough to push the baby out. In the case of the Arkansas woman described in the Times editorial, the restraints led to "a permanent hip injury, torn stomach muscles, an umbilical hernia that required an operation and extreme mental anguish."
The woman, a 29-year-old nonviolent offender, later sued prison officials under the Constitution's Eighth Amendment barring "cruel and unusual punishment," and a U.S. appeals court recently upheld her claim. But that ruling doesn't directly affect Maryland because the Arkansas court has no jurisdiction here.
Corrections officials certainly have a duty to do whatever is necessary to guard against the possibility of dangerous felons escaping to commit more crimes during hospital visits. But the idea that a woman in labor and delivery poses a flight risk so severe that she must be shackled throughout the procedure seems inhumane at best, and deliberately cruel at worst.
At minimum, corrections officials need to clarify the guidelines for when such extreme measures are warranted, not leave it up to the whim of prison guards who may or may not understand the risks shackling poses to the health of both mother and child. A much better solution would be to abolish this medically dubious and morally repugnant practice outright.
Comments
They should have immediately taken this woman to the prison infirmary, and we should immediately BAN this practice, unless the person in question has a history of being violent inside the walls of the prison.
Really, it's time to stop putting non-violent offenders into prison in the first place. A better thing to do would be to REPEAL the drug laws (which 90% or more of those people are in prison under) and a few other laws, and make non-violent crimes punishable by, at most, a stiff fine.
Posted by: Christopher Kidwell | October 19, 2009 1:33 AM
Your recent post, Cruel and Unusual Punishment (10/15/2009), about the restraint of prisoners during medical procedures, leaves out much of the Division of Correction Policy on this issue. It also misleads the reader into thinking that in Maryland all pregnant inmates are ‘cruelly’ shackled to the bed during the delivery of their baby. This is simply untrue.
Your assertions were correct that our officers ‘…certainly have a duty to… guard against the possibility of dangerous felons escaping… during hospital visits.’ The level of restraint during transport, or when situated outside one of our institutions, is based on a prisoner’s security level. Those with the highest security level are secured as necessary.
But no matter the security level, the Division’s policy is clear: In cases where there is a life threatening condition, or when requested by medical personnel to provide proper care, custody supervision can authorize the removal of the restraints.
It is not our policy to have corrections staff arbitrarily make these decisions. A decision in this matter is clearly based on the advice and needs of both the prisoner and medical staff. This policy was provided to you upon request, yet the choice was made to leave it out of the discussion.
Also left out of the discussion is that our corrections officers are trained annually on the use of restraints during medical transport of inmates. If the Baltimore Sun is going to take the Division of Correction to task, it should at least get its facts right.
And, our custody staff should be referred to as “Corrections Officers” not ‘prison guards’ as you put it. The label ‘prison guard’ does not do justice the training and level of professionalism seen everyday in the performance of our staff.
J. Michael Stouffer, Commissioner
Maryland Division of Correction
Posted by: J Michael Stouffer | October 22, 2009 10:26 AM