Women in New York State Prisons Face Solitary Confinement and Shackling While Pregnant or Sick
by Victoria Law
What
does solitary confinement have to do with reproductive justice? Quite a
lot, says a new report about reproductive health care in New York's
women's prisons. The Correctional Association of New York, a criminal
justice policy and advocacy organization, released Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons.
The report is a culmination of the organization's five-year study of
the state's women's prisons, including in-person interviews with over
950 incarcerated women and 1,500 mailed-in surveys.
New
York State incarcerates nearly 4,000 women each year. On any given day,
the New York Department of Corrections and Community Service (DOCCS)
imprisons 2,300 women, for which it is responsible for providing health
care, including reproductive health care. But that care is "woefully
substandard," charges the report. The Correctional Association found
that DOCCS systemically offered substandard medical treatment,
inadequate access to gynecological care, poor conditions for pregnant
women, and insufficient supplies of feminine hygiene products and toilet
paper. In addition, pregnant women are routinely shackled during labor,
delivery, and postpartum recovery, in violation of the state's 2009
law.
Solitary
confinement exacerbates these problems. Approximately 1,600 people are
placed in solitary confinement in New York's women's prisons each year.
On any given day, 100 women are held in solitary confinement. Until
recently, no exceptions were made for pregnant women. But even women who
are not pregnant have found that solitary confinement further obstructs
their ability to access reproductive health care. "Solitary is
especially dangerous for pregnant women because it impedes access to
critical OB care and prevents women from getting the regular exercise
and movement that are vital for a healthy pregnancy," the report states.
In addition, many pregnant women already experience stress and
depression, feelings intensified by isolation. For pregnant women, the
additional stress of being locked in a cell for 23 hours a day lowers
their ability to fight infection and increases the risk of preterm
labor, miscarriage, and low birth weight in babies.
Among
the women surveyed by the Correctional Association, the three most
common charges for isolation were, in order, disobeying a direct order,
creating a disturbance, and being out of place. "It's one of the
clearest examples of how the prison system is a system of punishment and
only uses punishment to address behaviors that need intervention and
support," Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Correctional Association's
Women in Prison Project and the author of the report, told Solitary
Watch.
DOCCS
has two forms of solitary confinement—the Special Housing Unit (SHU),
which is used to punish more serious rules violations, and keeplock, for
less serious infractions. People placed in keeplock are usually
confined to their own cells; if they live in a dorm setting, they are
sent to a separate keeplock unit. SHU cells are in a separate area. In
keeplock, individuals are allowed to keep their possessions while those
in SHU are denied almost all of their property and receive only the
minimal number of state-issued items. People generally spend no more
than 60 days in keeplock, whereas people can spend months, years or even
decades in the SHU.
Whether
in SHU or keeplock, people are confined to their cells 23 hours each
day. They cannot participate in programs, receive packages, or use the
phone except to make legal or emergency calls. In addition, they are
limited to one non-legal visit per week and three five to ten minute
showers per week. They often have difficulty accessing doctors. When
they are visited by medical staff, they are frequently forced to shout
their concerns through a locked metal door, allowing people in
neighboring cells and nearby staff to hear.
Until
2014, no written policy regulated pregnancy and solitary confinement.
But as part of the settlement for the class-action lawsuit Peoples v Fischer,
DOCCS issued a memo establishing a "presumption" against SHU placement
for pregnant women unless a watch commander believes she poses "an
immediate and substantial risk [to herself or others]…or an immediate
and substantial threat to the safety and good order of the facility,"
which remain left to the discretion of prison staff and officials. The
memo does not restrict pregnant women from being placed in keeplock,
instead suggesting it as an alternate placement for pregnant women who
receive a SHU sentence.
The
Correctional Association identified seven women held in solitary while
pregnant between 2009 and 2012. All had problems accessing prenatal care
from isolation. In one instance, a woman spent four weeks in keeplock
where her complaints of bleeding were ignored. After the Correctional
Association intervened, she was given medical attention and diagnosed
with an ectopic pregnancy, in which the pregnancy occurs outside the
womb and, if unaddressed, can be fatal.
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