Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 Source: Post-Crescent, The (Appleton, WI) http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=3D/20060115/APC0101/60= 1150548/1003/APC01 Copyright: 2006 The Post-Crescent Contact: http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1443 Author: Wendy Harris, Post-Crescent staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women) Note: Eastern Wisconsin is home to the state's largest prison for women. Taycheedah Correctional Institution near Fond du Lac houses more than 700 female inmates. Nationwide, the number of women in prisons designed largely for men is growing, including mothers of young children. In a three-day series titled "Motherhood behind bars," The Post-Crescent examined the trend, how it affects particularly prison moms and how the state is responding. The series originally was published Jan. 15-17, 2006. Part 1B: POLICY KEEPS SHACKLES ON DURING LABOR State: Goal Is Decent Treatment, Public Security Of all the state's prison policies, the gender-neutral requirement of restraining prisoners who must go to a community hospital or clinic for care has ramifications unique to the pregnant, female offender: she labors in leg shackles. Samantha Luther, who entered Taycheedah Correctional Institution pregnant last March, knew what to expect. But her baby's birthday came without warning. On the morning of Sept. 6, Luther, 38 weeks pregnant, was awakened by a guard and told to "get ready for her doctor's appointment," said Luther, who grew up in Menasha. Wearing customary handcuffs and leg shackles, she was escorted under a guard's watch to Fond du Lac's St. Agnes Hospital's fourth floor - labor and delivery - not the doctor's office where she had been going for prenatal checkups. Her baby's due date was still 12 days away. "(The doctor) came in and said he was going to pop my water," said Luther, a drug offender who violated her probation. "I was so mad. I was not prepared. I was in shock. ... I felt like all of my rights had been taken away." Her handcuffs were removed, but her shackles, giving her about 18 inches between her ankles, remained on. The doctor then ruptured her amniotic sac. Wearing socks, the shackles and a hospital gown, she and the guard paced the hallway on and off for several hours. "They made me walk the halls in my shackles in front of all these women," Luther said. "It was so humiliating. My ankles were raw." When her labor failed to start, she was given a drug to start her contractions. "I had shackles on up until the baby was coming out and then they took them off for me to push," Luther said. "It was unbelievable. Like I was going to go anywhere." The practice of shackling laboring inmates for most of labor and immediately after childbirth is common across the country. Amnesty International considers the practice "cruel and degrading," saying it "endangers the woman and her child." The practice also violates United Nations standards and is opposed by the American Public Health Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In 2001, Amnesty reported 21 states allowed the use of shackles. Wisconsin officials say they must balance security and inmates' access to care. "Obviously, our goal is decent, humane treatment of all our offenders in our custody," state corrections Secretary Matt Frank said. "Security and preventing escape are an important part of the job. ... Our goal is to accomplish both of those things and I don't think they are mutually exclusive." Frank has ordered his staff, however, to review the use of restraints and the overall pregnancy and childbirth processes, spokesman John Dipko said Saturday. Ana Boatwright, warden of Wisconsin's women's correctional system, added that the use of restraints is determined on a case-by-case basis. "Whenever we take offenders outside the institutions, we have to be careful how we do it," she said. "We don't want to have more victims." Inmates also have the option of wearing plastic ties in lieu of the heavy shackles, an alternative Luther claims she was not offered. Baby boy Rhylee was born weighing 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Dr. Robert J. Schuster, a Fond du Lac ob/gyn who has delivered babies of Taycheedah inmates for more than 30 years, said it's common to bring pregnant inmates in and induce them to prevent them from giving birth in their cells. "We bring them in after 38 weeks to make sure they are in the hospital and everything is taken care of," said Schuster, who also provides prenatal care to the inmates. However, this is not a prison policy and an inmate must sign a consent form to be induced, said Jim Greer, director of the Bureau of Health Services of the Department of Corrections.