Pa. House panel approves anti-shackling bill

HARRISBURG - A legislative panel yesterday took the first step toward ending what critics call a medieval procedure of shackling inmates as they give birth.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, in a unanimous vote, endorsed the Healthy Birth for Incarcerated Women Act, which would make Pennsylvania the seventh state to outlaw the practice.

"To me, it seems like something out of a Dickens novel, something that happened 200 years ago in a dark prison," said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery), the bill's sponsor.

It remains unclear, however, even among prison officials, how widespread the practice is.

A woman jailed on marijuana charges who gave birth 15 months ago in shackles lauded the vote, but questioned why it had taken so long to address a policy she called "barbaric."

"This is America, and I can't believe it is 2010 and we are just passing a bill like that," said Tina Torres, 29, of Philadelphia's Germantown section.

Torres has become the face of the issue in Pennsylvania. Her story was told recently by the BBC and Philadelphia Weekly.

Doctors at Northeastern Hospital performed a cesarean section in October 2008, while she was an inmate at Philadelphia's Riverside Correctional Facility. During 17 hours of labor, she had one wrist handcuffed to her gurney and her legs shackled together. She still has scars from where the leg irons cut into her ankles.

"It was horrible, demeaning, and something I will never forget," she said yesterday after the committee vote. "Even animals in captivity don't have to give birth in chains. I felt even less than an animal."

The charges that landed Torres in prison were dropped a month after her daughter, Adorah, was born. Philadelphia's prison system has since rewritten its rules and abandoned shackling during childbirth.

"In corrections, we try and manage risks, and we adapt and evolve," Philadelphia Prison Commissioner Louis Giorla said of the changed policy. "Any way we can give [pregnant inmates] a semblance of normalcy in life is a good thing."

Still, Giorla said there were times when a pregnant woman would need to be restrained. In some circumstances, inmates with a mental illness are taken off medication because of pregnancy. That can make them unstable and difficult to manage, he said.

Since the policy was changed, Giorla said, there has not been an incident involving a pregnant inmate.

Last year, 35 women gave birth while in the city's prison system.

Under Senate Bill 1074, corrections officials still would be permitted to use restraints during labor, but only in extreme situations.

"The only justification for it is security, and the idea that a woman who is nine months pregnant, during labor, is able to overpower two armed guards and scale a wall and sprint to freedom is preposterous," Leach said.

Leach said he drafted the legislation after reading about the issue's unfolding in New York's statehouse last year.

He researched Pennsylvania's statutes and determined that there was nothing that banned use of shackles on pregnant inmates. As a result, it remains the "default" policy for some counties, said Leach, though he was unable to name prisons that now use such restraints.

"This is not something that happens every day," he said, "but this is something that could happen on any given day."

Ed Sweeney, president of the Pennsylvania County Corrections Association, said he did not know of any county where shackles were used during labor or delivery.

Sweeney, director of the Lehigh County Corrections Department, said about six inmates at his jails gave birth each year, but in each case their handcuffs were removed when they were admitted to a hospital.

"What the law would do is compel counties to put a written policy in place," he said.

The bill would set policy for prisons throughout the state but is directed primarily at county facilities.

State Corrections Department officials said that their policy already mirrors the proposed anti-shackling law, and that they support the measure.

"Safety and security come first, but . . . when a female is actively pushing in 'oh-my-God-this-hurts' labor, she doesn't want to be shackled," said Sue Bensinger, a Corrections Department spokeswoman.

Leach said he expected the Senate to approve the bill by the end of February and send it to the House. By April, he said, the legislation could be on the desk of Gov. Rendell.

California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas, and Vermont have such laws on the books. Last week, a legislator in Washington state introduced a similar bill.