Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

On Thursday, March 20, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed S2012, a bill that limits the shackling of pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery. The bill also requires minimum standards of medical care for pregnant women in jail and prison. "There is absolutely no reason to shackle pregnant women," Senator Karen Spilka, the bill's sponsor, told Truthout hours before the Senate vote. "It's unsafe, inhumane and barbaric."

Spilka was not the only Massachusetts lawmaker who thought so. The month before, on February 20, Governor Deval Patrick announced emergency regulations prohibiting the shackling of pregnant women in Massachusetts jails and prisons while they are in their second trimester, as well as when they are in labor, delivery and postpartum recovery.

Shackling refers to the practice of restraining people in jail or prison. A person who is shackled is handcuffed, and those handcuffs are attached to a chain that leads to another chain around her waist. From that waist chain, which formerly incarcerated women state is as heavy as a bicycle chain, another chain trails downward to the ankles, which are also cuffed together. Only 18 states have legislation prohibiting the shackling of pregnant women during labor, delivery and postpartum recovery.

Both the bill's passage in the Senate and the governor's regulations come after years of education and advocacy by reproductive justice advocates, prisoner rights activists and currently and formerly incarcerated women.

To read more about the years of education, advocacy and activism that led to this vote, see my latest on Truthout: Massachusetts Senate Votes for Childbirth Without Chains