Gregoire signs bill barring shackling of pregnant inmates

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday signed a bill that will forbid state prisons, county jails and juvenile correctional facilities from shackling nearly all female inmates who are in labor or recovering from labor.

The law, which goes into effect June 10, also bans the use of waist chains and leg irons at any point in pregnancy and limits restraints on pregnant inmates who are being transported during their third trimester of pregnancy.

The move comes a year after a former inmate at the Washington Corrections Center for Women filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the state Department of Corrections (DOC) claiming her constitutional rights were violated during the delivery of her son. The case is scheduled for trial in June.

Casandra Brawley was shackled with a belly chain when she was taken from the Gig Harbor-area prison to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma to deliver her son in April 2007.

While at the hospital, Brawley was shackled to the bed with an ankle cuff and remained shackled after being given an epidural five hours into labor. Brawley told The Seattle Times during an interview last year that she remained shackled to the hospital bed during her three days of recovery after delivery.

The DOC has long banned restraining inmates during labor or delivery, said Superintendent Douglas Cole, who supervises the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

State prisons have historically banned restraining inmates during their third trimester, unless the inmate is a danger to herself or others, Cole said. He added that the biggest impact the new law will have on the DOC is from the restrictions regarding restraining women post-delivery.

Attorney Sara Ainsworth, who is representing Brawley, said that Washington becomes the seventh state to have restrictions on the shackling of pregnant inmates.

"I'm really happy to be part of a movement to end this practice," said Ainsworth, who works at Legal Voice, a Seattle public-interest law firm.

Ainsworth said Washington joins New York and Illinois as states that have the strongest legal protections for pregnant inmates.

Ainsworth said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association have come out strongly against the practice, noting that it is medically dangerous to women and their babies, as well as being demeaning and dehumanizing.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supports a federal law banning shackling women in labor because it interferes with medical care and puts "the health and lives of the women and unborn children at risk."

Ainsworth said that doctors testified before Olympia lawmakers that shackles can put a mother and a baby's life at risk during emergency procedures because the metal restraints can't be removed fast enough.

Ainsworth and Brawley attended the bill-signing ceremony in Olympia. Brawley, who was released from prison about a month after having her son, lives in Bremerton with her son, now 3, and a baby daughter.

The legislative measure, House Bill 2747, was sponsored by Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma.

Information from Seattle Times archives is contained in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com