$4.1 Million Settlement Puts Jails on Notice: Shackling Pregnant Women is Unlawful

http://www.aclu.org/blog/content/41-million-settlement-puts-jails-notice-shackling-pregnant-women-unlawful

Every year in the United States babies are born to women who are literally in chains – shackled to their delivery beds even in the act of labor. Thankfully, there is hope that this long-hidden and terrible practice – and the legacy of pain, humiliation and harm its causes mothers and children – will soon be eradicated from jails, prisons and detention centers across the country.

Yesterday, we saw another important step in this long march to a more fair and humane criminal justice system for pregnant woman and girls. A federal court issued preliminarily approval of a settlement of $4.1 million dollars to women held in the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois who alleged that they were shackled while in labor, despite constitutional protections and a state law that prevented such practices.