Pa. Now Prohibits Shackling of Inmates Giving Birth
Women in chains no more. The Pennsylvania Prison Society is celebrating a new law which bans the shackling of pregnant female inmates during labor.
KYW's Kim Glovas reports that Act 45 -- which took two years to get through the legislature but eventually passed both houses unanimously -- has been signed into law by Governor Rendell.
Tina Torres, who is now a nurse, had to deliver her daughter while shackled in a county jail:
"Everyone is so baffled that it's 2010, we're finally doing this. So you can imagine, I actually experienced it. For 18½ hours I was in labor. You wanna see? I still have scars on my ankles from the shackles."
Torres says that in addition to the chains on her feet, there were chains around her body. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed.
(Click the Play Button below to hear Torres' story)
Podcast
Jennifer Tobin is with the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project:
"This is an inhumane way to treat someone giving birth. No baby should be subjected to this, and no mother, even if she is a prisoner, should ever be subjected to this."
Pennsylvania becomes only the tenth state in the nation to ban shackling of female inmates during delivery. Delaware and New Jersey are not on that list, so far.
(File photo)
