Personal Injury Law

Over 20 Ex-Cook County Inmates Have Filed Chicago Personal Injury Lawsuits Claiming They Were Restrained While Giving Birth

According to the Chicago Tribune, since 2008 over 20 former Cook County inmates have filed Chicago police brutality lawsuits against the sheriff?s office claiming that they were shackled or handcuffed by the leg while giving birth. It is illegal in this state to shackle women during labor.

While officials from the sheriff?s office claim that no laws have been broken?per policy, a pregnant woman can be restrained until a medical official verifies that she has gone into labor?the attorney who is representing the plaintiffs, whose cases received class-action status last month, have said that the restraints on his clients were either never removed or taken off too late?as in right before delivery. He also says there have been occasions when guards have refused medical professionals? requests that the shackles and handcuffs be taken off.

The sheriff?s office recently revised its policy so that pregnant women in custody can no longer be restrained with belly chains around the waist and shackles. They can only be handcuffed now.

About 50 women a year give birth while in custody at Cook County jail. The Bureau of Justice Statistics says that in 2004, 3% of women in federal prisons and 4% of women in state prisons were pregnant when they were admitted behind bars.

Unnecessary restraining an inmate or a suspect is a violation of human rights and can be considered an act of Chicago police brutality when imposed by a law enforcement official. Three federal courts have even ruled that shacking a woman in labor without just cause violates her constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Last month, the American Medical Association adopted a resolution that shackling women while they are in labor be prohibited. The resolution calls the practice ?medically hazardous? or ?barbaric.?

Illinois is one of several US states with laws that discourage this practice.

Childbirth in chains, Chicago Tribune, July 18, 2010

AMA: House of Delegates Backs Ban on Shackling Inmates in Labor, MedPageToday, June 15, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Cook County Sheriff's Office

Bureau of Justice Statistics

Full post as published by Chicago Injury Attorney Blog on July 20, 2010 (boomark / email).