The penal system needs updating to suit the surge in female prisoners

Can you imagine being shackled down to the hospital bed while giving birth? It may sound like something from post-apocalyptic fiction, but in actual fact female prisoners are regularly restrained while giving birth, irrespective of the flight risk that they may pose. A recent report into pregnant women prisoners revealed that over thirty-six states received poor results as a result of their treatment of female prisoners in their care while they were in labor.

One prisoner, Shawanna Lumsey, who served time for credit card fraud while pregnant in 2003, complained of receiving the bare minimum in terms of pre-natal care while incarcerated. The fact of the matter is that, irrespective of the crime, the pregnant women in question should have available adequate medical care throughout her pregnancy. The report, produced by two Washington-based human rights groups; the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, found that prisons are failing to provide the appropriate medical care for pregnant women during their time in prison.

Lumsey said: “Prisoners still have human rights. And shackling takes those basic human rights away.” Lumsey went on to say that “We are human beings, even when we are in prison.” The poor grades were awarded based upon the prison’s usage of shackling equipment on pregnant women in prison during shackling on pregnant women during transportation, labor and delivery and even during the recuperative period after giving birth.

Since the 1980s,the number of women in prison has increased by as much as five times the original number. Despite this sudden surge, the nursery conditions available in prisons has barely improved, and facilities for female prisoners who are also mothers needs to be drastically updated.