Opinion ID: 4548623
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A Brief History of Shackling

Text: Dating back to the times of the English common law, there have been restrictions on the use of restraints for incarcerated persons without some individualized inquiry into the need for restraints. The prisoner is to be called to the bar by his name ; and it is laid down in our antient books , that, though under an indictment of the highest nature, he must be brought to the bar without irons, or any manner of shackles or bonds ; unless there be evident danger of an escape, and then he may be secured with irons. 4 WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES  (footnote omitted). However, defendants could be held in chains at the time of their arraignment. Id. In 1897, this court recognized [i]t was the ancient rule at common law that a prisoner brought into the presence of the court for trial, upon a plea of not guilty to an indictment, was entitled to appear free of all manner of shackles or bonds, and, prior to 1722, when a prisoner was arraigned or appeared at the bar of the court to plead, he was presented without manacles or bonds, unless there was evident danger of his escape. State v. Williams, 18 Wash. 47, 49, 50 P. 580 (1897). We acknowledged that article I, section 22 of the Washington State Constitution gives a defendant “the right to appear and defend in person” and that this right includes “the use of not only his mental but his physical faculties unfettered, and unless some impelling necessity 9 State v. Jackson (John W., Sr.), No. 97681-3 demands the restraint of a prisoner to secure the safety of others and his own custody, the binding of the prisoner in irons is a plain violation of the constitutional guaranty.” Williams, 18 Wash. at 51. Although this guaranty to be free from restraints absent an individualized determination has been acknowledged explicitly in this court since the late 1800s, we still see cases, such as this one, where courts are systematically using restraints on all incarcerated defendants. The problems in the history of shackling in early America are not limited to the courts and incarcerated individuals. As amici KCDPD et al. emphasize in their brief, the use of shackling as a means of control and oppression, primarily against people of color, has run rampant in the history of this country. Br. of Amici KCDPD et al. at 2-6. Shackles and restraints remain an image of the transatlantic slave trade and the systematic abuse and ownership of African persons that has endured long beyond the end of slavery. Shackles and restraints also represent the forced removal of Native people from their homelands through the Trail of Tears and the slave labor of Native people. We recognize that although these atrocities occurred over a century ago, the systemic control of persons of color remains in society, particularly within