When women talk about the rampant misogyny that is built into so many of the structures in this country, their experience often falls upon deaf ears. Yet being a woman often means being marginalized in the workplace, in schools, in public, and even in the criminal justice system. A new lawsuit involving the Milwaukee County Jail offers a glimpse into horrific treatment against pregnant inmates over a period of several years.
In the third recent lawsuit alleging painful and inhumane treatment at the jail, no less than 40 women say that they were forced to give birth in shackles while incarcerated.
The federal civil suit accuses the notorious lockup of inflicting “physical pain and suffering” on dozens of pregnant inmates who endured labor in chains, exposing them to “unreasonable risks of harm.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Melissa Hall, a 27-year-old who was held at the jail for seven months in 2013, but includes similar abuse experienced by other pregnant women.
[Melissa Hall] was pregnant at the time, and forced to wear a “belly-chain,” which kept her wrists tied to her waist and attached her legs with irons.
But armed deputies forced her to keep the chain on when she went into labor — even after medical providers insisted she be freed, the complaint says.
The confinement inflicted more pain on her as she gave birth, left marks on her body and made it harder for hospital workers to give her an epidural, court papers say. [...]
A 2014 lawsuit from another woman who was held at the jail accused deputies of handcuffing and shackling her during 21 hours of labor. Another lawsuit, filed in December 2016, said officials allowed an inmate's newborn baby to die through negligence.
This does not at all sound like the behavior of a civilized country or a country that values women. In this regard (and so many others), we are neither civilized nor do we value women. But this disgusting disdain for women’s lives and safety is apparently not new in Milwaukee. In fact, the complaint says that shackling detainees during medical treatment is commonplace and makes no exception for childbirth or other cases.
Its also worth nothing that the sheriff of Milwaukee County (who was named as a defendant in the suit) is none other than David Clarke—a Trump groupie who seems to share the strong-arm law and order approach touted by Trump, Rudy Guiliani, Jeff Sessions, and the like. We know they want to lock up anyone they perceive as a criminal—and in their world, criminals are undeserving of justice and humanity.
The jail and the county’s strongman sheriff [Clarke]— a Trump ally who shares the President's penchant for provocative remarks — have been repeatedly accused of abusing detainees, or even leaving them to die.
Mahatma Ghandi said that the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. And if our elected officials can’t fix this issue immediately and begin to treat women (whether they are incarcerated or not) and their newborn children with compassion, safety, and care, then we are unworthy of all the pats on the back we give ourselves about being the greatest country in the world.