Over the course of several years, I have volunteered for the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville working on issues of the incarcerated.  While there are certainly many issues with our justice system and the ensuing correctional process, the shackling of women during the process of childbirth is one of the most inane and frankly, inhuman processes I've seen.

Many of the women inmates from the Fluvanna site get sent to the University of Virginia for delivery of a child.  Since the institution waits until the very last moment to transport these women to UVA to deliver, they are almost always in labor during transport and arrival at the hospital.  I will not include here the medical opinions of doctors and nurses at UVA I've received about why shackling women inmates during labor is not only unnecessary but dangerous for both the mother and child.  I will hoever suggest that it is OBVIOUS to anyone that a women in labor under the supervision of 2 accompanying guards is not a flight risk!

Please prohibit the shackling of women during childbirth in Virginia.  We are better than this!  What hope do we have to solve the really hard problems with over-incarceration, recidivism and the billions of dollars we're spending on corrections if we can't agree that women in labor should not be bound in shackles.  How do we solve the really hard problem of what will become of that baby born to an incarcerated mother who was taken back to prison less than 5 hours after giving birth?