CI: Birthing Behind Bars

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Criminal InJustice† is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal InJustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm CST.

Birthing Behind Bars: Fighting for Reproductive Justice for Women in Prison
By Tina Reynolds and Victoria Law

“I never thought of advocating outside of prison. I just wanted to have some semblance of a normal life once I was released,” stated Tina Reynolds, a mother and formerly incarcerated woman. Then she gave birth to her son while in prison for a parole violation:

“When I went into labor, my water broke. The van came to pick me up, I was shackled. Once I was in the van, I was handcuffed. I was taken to the hospital. The handcuffs were taken off, but the shackles weren’t. I walked to the wheelchair that they brought over to me and I sat in the wheelchair with shackles on me. They re-handcuffed me once I was in the wheelchair and took me up to the floor where women had their children.

“When I got there, I was handcuffed with one hand. At the last minute, before I gave birth, I was unshackled so that my feet were free. Then after I gave birth to him, the shackles went back on and the handcuffs stayed on while I held my son on my chest.”

That treatment, she recalled later, was “the most egregious, dehumanizing, oppressive practice that I ever experienced while in prison.” Her experience is standard procedure for the hundreds of women who enter jail or prison while pregnant each year.

Upon her release, Reynolds started Women on the Rise Telling Her Story (WORTH), an organization of currently and formerly incarcerated women based in New York City, to give currently and formerly incarcerated women both a voice and a support system.


In 2009, Reynolds and other WORTH members took up the challenge of fighting for legislation to end the practice of shackling women while in labor in New York State. At rallies and other public events, formerly incarcerated women spoke about being pregnant while in jail and prison, being handcuffed and shackled while in labor, and being separated from their newborn babies almost immediately. Their stories drew public attention to the issue and put human faces to the pending legislation. That year, New York became the seventh state to limit the shackling of incarcerated women during birth and delivery.

Recognizing the power of women’s individual stories to enact change, WORTH is launching Birthing Behind Bars, a project that not only collects stories from women nationwide who have experienced pregnancy while incarcerated, but also strengthens their capacity and ability to share their stories. Too often, issues of reproductive justice are separated from issues of incarceration. Birthing Behind Bars ties women’s individual experiences to the broader issues of reproductive justice (or injustice) behind prison walls and helps push a state-by-state analysis of the intersections of reproductive justice and incarceration.

This past March, Arizona became the sixteenth state to pass anti-shackling legislation. Thirty-four states still have no legal protection for women who give birth while behind bars. In Georgia and in Massachusetts, formerly and currently incarcerated women, their advocates, and reproductive rights activists are currently pushing for legislation to prohibit the practice of shackling of incarcerated pregnant women during transport, labor, delivery and recovery. Stories of incarcerated women’s pregnancies and birth experiences have proven to be powerful tools when educating the general public and confronting legislators to support such a bill.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, a feminist, abolitionist and author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, issued a proclamation urging women to celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States. For Howe, Mother’s Day was not a holiday simply for breakfast in bed, cards and flowers—it was a call for women to shape their societies at the political level.

Even though Mother’s Day has passed, the need for action has not. Please, take a few minutes to reflect on the reality of women who give birth behind bars. Then take a few more minutes to find out how you can help shape a society where no woman ever has to give birth while in shackles and chains.

Victoria Law is a writer, photographer and mother. She is the author of “Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women” (PM Press 2009), the editor of the zine Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison and a co-founder of Books Through Bars – NYC. Her latest book, “Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind” (PM Press, Fall 2012) addresses how social justice movements and communities can support the families in their midst.

Tina Reynolds is co-founder and co-chair of Women on the Rise Telling Her Story (WORTH) and an adjunct lecturer at York College/CUNY. She is a co-editor of “Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States” (UC Press 2010).

Originally Published at Alternet.

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  • PegRapp

    Really glad you did this issue.  Beyond the birthing behind bars is the immediate removal of your child and, because of laws on parental contact, the real possibility that you will loose your parental rights.  There was a project in Rikers years ago – don’t know how it came out or if they still do it — where you get to have your baby in jail with you for a certain amount of time (like months) after the birth. They said it decreased recidivism.  Is this or any similar programs still going?
     
    Also, it’s important, when you read about things like the shackling of women during birth, to realize that even if women make up a smaller percentage of the inmates, they are more often there for reasons that do not have to do with their own direct criminal activity – riding with a boyfriend who is a criminal, forged checks to feed a child (ok criminal, but really), and worst, convicted of murder when you try to defend yourself against an abusive spouse (would love to see a column on that).

    •  @PegRapp not sure about the Rikers program – maybe vikki nows
       
      this is true though — even if women make up a smaller percentage of the inmates, they are more often there for reasons that do not have to do with their own direct criminal activity — and ad to that, they often do much more time than their male counter-parts
       
      thanks for stopping peg

      •  @nancy a heitzeg  @PegRapp There is still a nursery program at Rikers Island. Both Linda Rosa & Angelina Ward (whose video interviews are on the Birthing Behind Bars site) were able to keep their babies with them at the nursery program. I’m told that Taconic Correctional Facility (the medium security women’s prison across the street from the more famous/infamous Bedford Hills) recently closed their nursery program though.
         
        But rather than trying to create more opportunities for women to keep their babies with them *in* prison, let’s move the conversation to having women be OUT in the community with their babies and getting support, programs and treatment to address some of the circumstances that led them to prison in the first place.

        •  @nancy a heitzeg  @PegRapp This is not to say that all nursery programs should be closed, mind you, but to say that nursery programs should NOT be the end-all, be-all solution to pregnancy and birth while in prison.

        •  @Vikki  @PegRapp agreed — 1000%

    •  @PegRapp And also, why is it that Stand Your Ground applies to George Zimmerman killing Trayvon Martin and not Marissa Alexander, an abused wife in Florida, who fired a warning shot into the ceiling to stop her husband from further attacking her *and who did not injure anyone*? Marissa Alexander was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison: http://mhpshow.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/11/11658879-marissa-alexander-gets-20-year-sentence?lite

      •  @Vikki  @PegRapp Only “white men ” get to stand their ground
         
        and yes — despite the media obfuscation -George ZImmerman is “white”

        • PegRapp

          Actually, he might pass for Latino and all obvious Latinos, white or not, are classified as people of color by most people. Even if he isn’t, I live in a Latino neighborhood and there is overt racism in the Latino community I live in toward  the black american community. I am not trying to create divisions, but we always assume that the racism only comes from whites.  Racism is so in grained in our system that sometimes it even comes from the black community itself (the enemy within our own heads). Of course, when it comes to the system itself, the enforcers always seem to know who to target.

        •  @PegRapp Many continue to confuse race and ethnicity
           
          and yes white supremacy/anti-black racism can (and is) upheld by multiple parties
           
          toni morrison was right — http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979736,00.html
           

  • Also, Tina was on the Melissa Harris-Perry show on Mother’s Day to talk about the realities of pregnant and parenting women in prison. You can watch it on-line here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979745/vp/47404492#47404492

    •  @Vikki that’s great — thank you for the link

    • KayWhitlock

       @Vikki Vikki, what’s your assessment of the political opportunities for us to organize against mass incarceration as a civil rights issue, given Melissa Harris-Perry, Michelle Alexander, your own work, and recent work of others – that is, work exposing/revealing the economic impacts, brutality, racism,  and gender/sexual violence of mass incarceration?  I am sensing that there is real movement, real life starting to gel.  It won’t be easy – but is my sense that there are real openings founded, in your experience?  Or am I kidding myself?

      •  @KayWhitlock You are definitely not kidding yourself!
         
        There are not only openings, there are already people doing the work (although not enough of us, to be sure…I have a tremendous amount of appreciation for CI and its bloggers/followers, but find it rather disturbing that this particular post on CI has only garnered comments from a handful of us rather than a raging discussion on how class, race and gender all intersect when it comes to incarceration and prison issues). So there are definitely ways to plug in and/or connect one social justice struggle to anti-prison struggles…
         
        There’s also a growing awareness around the work that’s being done by people most impacted by incarceration, like the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement and the Prison Teach-ins at Occupy Wall Street.
         
        One thing that we have to keep in mind though, as people concerned about intersections and not just focusing on a hetero male lens of incarceration, is to keep broadening the conversation. Like why are we *not* talking about LGBT issues and criminalization (btw, your book is brilliant!)? Why aren’t we talking about shackling as a PRISON issue? Why aren’t we talking about PARENTING as a prison issue?
         
        I was in Portland (OR) last month for the Law & Disorder conference. I talked about the August Rebellion at Bedford Hills in 1974 (for those of you who don’t know what it is, go to: resistancebehindbars.org)  and Bo Brown, who was active in prisoner support and the lesbian communities, said that the August Rebelliion sparked those in radical women’s and lesbian communities to start doing work around women in prison struggles. So there *was* support, there *was* analysis but somehow, the larger anti-prison/prisoners’ rights movement didn’t connect with the women’s communities who were doing this work and so women’s prison issues remained marginalized.
         
        Let’s learn from that marginalization and make sure that, when we are talking about incarceration and its impact, we are talking about *everyone* affected by incarceration–women (of whatever sexual orientation), queer people, trans people, men, youth, immigrants, etc–and not just the population most visible.
         
         

        •  @KayWhitlock But to more succinctly answer your question, Kay, YES there are real opportunities to raise these issues and to organize against them and to *really* bring abolition (or decarceration if the “A” word scares people off) into the conversation and start working towards the world we want to see where we don’t think of cages as the only way to make us safe.

        • KayWhitlock

           @Vikki I am so with you, Vikki.  You’ve done groundbreaking work, for which I am so grateful.  Mass incarceration is a thread that runs through every major issue of social/economic justice.  Intersectional analysis/organizing is critical – and it’s what will produce lasting victories. It’s how we unpack/break down/resist “the official story.”
           
          So very grateful for your work, your voice, and for the work and voices of so many others.

        • KayWhitlock

           @Vikki I use the A word all the time, and once people get over the shock of why I use it, genuinely good discussions ensue.

        •  @Vikki  @KayWhitlock sorry i was off for a it
           
          Yes to all you said.. Prison impacts so many — in fact all of us, even simply as taxpayers
           
          it is — imho — the intersectional issue of the 21st century

        • i love the “A-Word” in big bold red letters :) @KayWhitlock  @Vikki 

        • PegRapp

           @Vikki  @KayWhitlock I really think the issue that can also be attacked right now is the number of women who are in prison specifically for defending themselves against abusers.  If I remember correctly, the rational was that if a woman got a restraining order, that meant she knew she might be attacked so if she went out and got a gun to defend herself after that (even though the restraining orders are often not effectively responded too), this somehow suggests premeditation.  anyway, when we were working on it in the 70s, there were supposed to be thousands of women in prison due to similar situations.  I think this issue, especially given the recent case, should also be ripe for action since it connects so many things -battering, gun violence, prison. Does anyone know the rational behind her sentencing — was it reckless firing of a fun because kids were present?

        •  @PegRapp  @KayWhitlock The rationale behind her sentencing, I believe, was mandatory sentencing. The rationale behind the absurd prosecution was that, in firing the gun, she *might* have hurt or killed her husband or her two children. But she didn’t.
           
          US Prison Culture wrote an amazing blogpost linking Marissa Alexander’s case to those of women who fought back in the 1970s (like Inez Garcia) and calls for a mass movement to free Alexander:
          http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/05/16/on-self-defense-women-of-color/

        • PegRapp

           @Vikki  @KayWhitlock Thanks for info on usprison culture.com.  The struggle around Inez Grcia was a big part of lives.

    • KayWhitlock

       @Vikki This is an important and moving interview.  Thank you, Tina Reynolds. 

  • trashablanca

    The only possible reason to shackle a woman giving birth is to degrade, dehumanize and demean them. You are utterly in the power of the state, and they don’t want you to forget it for a single millisecond.
     
    This is an abomination and needs to be stopped ASAP. Thanks for bringing light to an ugly reality.

    •  @trashablanca Amen to all of it!
       
      so good to see you trashablanca

    • KayWhitlock

       @trashablanca amen.

      •  @KayWhitlock  @trashablanca ha!! “Amen” is our word :)

    •  @trashablanca Thanks Trashablanca! Please spread the site, sign the pledge, urge others to do the same and so we can mobilize around this issue and get rid of this (and other) abominable practice(s) everywhere!

  • KayWhitlock

    Thank you, Tina Reynolds and Vikki Law.  This is amazing work.  I’ve already been sharing the website.  Cheering you on.

    •  @KayWhitlock me too Kay — it is an excellent resource

    •  @KayWhitlock Thanks Kay!

  • Thanks so much Vikki and Tina for all you do to shed light on the often hidden stories of women in prison.
     
    Shackling is a horrific practice and i am hoping that awareness leads other states to ban this as well
     
    thanks again

    •  @nancy a heitzeg Thanks Nancy for all that *you* do!
       
      Shackling is indeed a horrific practice and one of the atrocities that gets overlooked when we look at prison issues through a predominantly male lens. I’m hoping that sparking national discussion around shackling and reproductive justice issues in prison leads to greater awareness about (and actions around) who is in prison and what they face.

      •  @Vikki thanks for being here vikki
         
        yes — the lens is predominately male but it is true  – in my experience anyway — that the stories of women and juveniles are especially compelling and then tend to shed light on the entire mess of mass incarceration in a new and powerful way
         
        so keep it up — as i know you will :)

      • KayWhitlock

         @Vikki with a real campaign behind this – and I will be referring lots of folks – maybe we can end this brutal and inhumane set of practices.

        •  @KayWhitlock  @Vikki most really have No Idea that this is occurring –   i know students were shocked by reading vikki’s book and coming to understand the full range of abuses directed at women in prison..