She may be chained to her hospital bed when seriously ill, or in labour. If she is seeking asylum in the USA, perhaps fleeing death in her home country, she may be locked up and treated like a criminal. There are 138,000 women in US jails and prisons, three times as many as in 1985. They comprise around eight per cent of the country s total inmates. Women in prisons and jails across the USA have suffered a horrifying range of human rights violations.
Some violations arise from the misuse of methods of restraint.
Prisoners are commonly shackled during trans-portation, for example, even if they pose no threat to guards. Pregnant women are no exception to this rule, despite the risk of miscarriage if they fall. Shackles are sometimes not even taken off when women go into labour. Restraining chairs are another method of restricting inmates' movement. In some cases they have become a routine method of control, and have reportedly been used to torture and punish inmates.