Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill That Prohibited Shackling of Pregnant Prisoners

This is outrageous.  If you are pregnant and in a California jail, you just might be shackled when you are transported between facilities.  AB1900 would have ended this practice.  In fact it faced no opposition and passed the Legislature without a single no vote.  According to Governor Schwarzenegger, the bill was outside the scope of the duties of the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA)Schwarzenegger said:
    
CSA's mission is to regulate and develop standards for correctional facilities, not establish policies on transportation issues to and from other locations.

It seems that transporting prisoners would be a part of operating a correctional facility and by extension would be a necessary aspect of the regulations and standards they develop.  In any case I have never understood the logic of this practice.  It seems unreasonable to assume that a pregnant woman will just magically escape her guards. 

2 comments:

Tiberius said...

Well I mean it makes sense that a woman who's 9 months pregnant probably wouldn't be much of a threat to anyone, but someone who's early on in the pregnancy would be more physically able. It's probably more of an issue of liability than anything else. As long as the shackles (handcuffs, ankle cuffs I'm assuming) do not cause harm to the woman or her child then they should shackle her for the same reason they shackle anyone else. Obviously they should consider her condition when treating her, but what gives her less of a chance of escaping or injuring someone than if she were not pregnant? Granted I'm not a woman and I don't know what it's like to be pregnant, but I'm sure they also shackle people who are less physically able, just for safety precautions. I do, however, think Schwarzenegger was dodging this issue. I don't know which organization is responsible for what, but this just sounds like sidestepping to me.

Anonymous said...

Everyone gets shackled. Being pregnant doesn't change that you're a prisoner, someone who has broken the law.

Whenever ANY prisoner is transported, they are shackled. This is to prevent escape. Just because you're pregnant doesn't suddenly make you a good citizen, or not a flight risk.

If anything, it makes you MORE of a flight risk.