A humane reform for pregnant inmates
Pennsylvania’s existing legal framework provides scant guidance on the proper treatment of pregnant inmates, relying largely on correctional facilities to self-regulate. Urgent legislative action is needed to address these shortcomings, and the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act (DIWA), signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro last Thursday after unanimous support in both legislative chambers, represents a crucial step forward.
Until DIWA, Pennsylvania law offered minimal protections for pregnant inmates, with sporadically enforced reporting requirements that only prohibited restraining women during labor, pregnancy-related medical complications and the immediate postpartum period. DIWA establishes comprehensive and compassionate standards, including restrictions on intrusive body cavity searches and solitary confinement for pregnant and postpartum inmates, ensuring free access to hygiene products, and providing essential education for staff who work with pregnant inmates who are minors.
The treatment of pregnant inmates had been left largely to the discretion of individual correctional facilities, with information only available through annual reports. Even these sanitized reports showcase negligence and cruelty: In Berks County, officers deployed a taser on a woman in her second trimester. A postpartum woman in Lehigh County was pepper sprayed, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles. In Dauphin County, a woman in her third trimester was pepper sprayed and placed in a restraint chair.
And these were the reports the institutions gave up willingly.
DIWA aims to bring greater transparency to the use of restraints, solitary confinement and body cavity searches on pregnant inmates through documentation, and, more importantly, the justification that goes along with it. Identifying information for personnel involved will also be disclosed, ensuring that staff remain accountable.
As for incentivizing reporting compliance: DIWA stipulates that correctional institutions that file no reports will have to publicly certify that zero incidents occurred, ensuring that institutions failing to properly document (or maybe aiming to hide) their conduct will have to sign off on their deception. It’s a small tweak that will move the blame for negligent oversight exactly where it belongs: on the facilities themselves.
The benefits to the law are numerous. It will allow mothers to spend three days with their infants after birth — vital time for newborns and parents to bond that they aren’t currently afforded. Previously, the law’s “postpartum” period ended when a woman returned from the hospital where she delivered. DIWA, instead, reflects reality: This healing period lasts 8 weeks or longer. Pregnant inmates, especially minors, will be afforded more privacy, better hygiene products, and more fair treatment.
The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act is a fine example of wellinformed legislation that will help protect a highly vulnerable group within our correctional facilities.