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In his article in the Huffington Post, “Stop Shackling Inmate Mothers,” Nolan says practice of prison officials chaining women to hospital beds during labor not that uncommon.
Although the American Correctional Association, which establishes standards and accredits prisons, has a very clear policy against shackling pregnant women, several prisons still use the barbaric practice.
Nolan describes one woman’s experience in Arkansas: “Shawanna Nelson was not a hardened criminal. She had no history of violence; she was doing time for writing bad checks. The female corrections officer who placed her in the shackles admitted that she had no reason to believe that Shawanna might try to escape. Unfortunately, Shawanna’s treatment is not an isolated case. What happened to her occurs in prisons across the country.”
Prison Fellowship is currently working with broad group of organizations to prohibit this risky and barbaric practice. For more information about women in prison, please click here.
To read the article, click here. To view the video of Shawanna Nelson's story, click here. |
