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| Bill Aids Pregnant Inmates |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 03/26/2001 |
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As recently as the late 1990s, the 15 to 20 inmates who give birth every year within the Massachusetts correctional system were on occasion shackled en route to or in the delivery room. Only in April 1999 did MCI Framingham, the state's only women's prison, officially forbid the use of leg and waist restraints on women in their second and third trimesters. Now a bill filed by state Representative Kay Khan would make illegal the use of restraints on inmates in their second and third trimesters and permanently ban the handcuffing of pregnant women to exam tables or labor beds during medical exams and labor. The bill would basically make the reforms at MCI Framingham into state law. While the bill would outlaw handcuffing behind the back and leg and waist shackles, it would also establish a legal standard of prenatal care for inmates that would include vitamins and iron supplements, a special diet, access to nutritional and education programs, appropriate maternity clothing, and classes in child care. The legislation also requires all correctional facilities to provide pregnant inmates, even those in detention, with a minimum of 30 minutes of ambulatory movement per day. Officials estimate about 150 pregnant women are imprisoned at Framingham each year, with about 10 percent giving birth while incarcerated. Department of Correction spokesman Justin Latini said that although full restraints on pregnant or women in labor were not always used, even before the April 1999 rule change, the new policy also required that the hands of inmates in their third trimester be cuffed only in front so the women could better keep their balance. He said the department's policy also called for correctional officers to remove all restraints when a woman entered active labor under a doctor's care. Under no circumstances are women to be handcuffed to exam tables or labor beds, Latini said. |
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