Pregnant prisoner gave birth in cuffs
New York City changes police rules after woman gets $610,000 settlement
NEW YORK — After a pregnant woman went into labor in a Bronx holding cell last year, she arrived at a nearby hospital in handcuffs and shackles, and on the brink of losing her unborn daughter.
New York state law prohibits shackling pregnant prisoners during labor and delivery, but police accompanying the woman left her in chains anyway.
They said they had to follow the rules in the department’s Patrol Guide, which called for her to be secured. She labored in shackles and, with one arm handcuffed to the bed, delivered a nearly 8-pound baby.
Now, after a lawsuit, the New York City Police Department is updating its rules.
The city agreed this week to pay the woman $610,000 to settle her claim that her treatment was inhumane and violated state law. The city denied wrongdoing, but the case prompted the Police Department to revise the Patrol Guide procedures for handling pregnant women.
“No woman should ever have to go through the traumatic experience that I went through,” the 28-yearold woman said in a recent interview. Her name is being withheld because her lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court as Jane Doe.
Deputy Commissioner Phillip Walzak, a department spokesman, said the policing manual would be amended “to better address safety and medical concerns” while balancing safety needs.
Shackling pregnant women is legal across much of the United States. But more legislatures are curtailing the practice as lawmakers heed warnings from doctors and researchers who say it poses potentially life-threatening risks to pregnant women and the unborn.
Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, an obstetriciangynecologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine who studies pregnancy among incarcerated women, applauded the New York City Police Department’s change in policy but warned that a change in policy would not be effective unless it was accompanied by training.
“It’s about making sure that all of the people who might encounter a pregnant person in custody know what the laws are,” she said. “But they also have to know why and how to implement it.”
Nationwide, there is no complete data about how many pregnant women are arrested, jailed or imprisoned each year. However, a recent survey conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine found that at least 1,400 pregnant women were admitted to federal and 22 state prison systems in 2016 and 2017. New York declined to participate, citing a lack of staff to compile the data, Sufrin, the lead researcher, said.
Last year, Congress banned shackling of pregnant women in federal prisons or in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. This year, Georgia and Utah joined New York and at least 27 other states in adopting or expanding laws limiting the use of restraints on pregnant inmates.