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13 Health Matrix 429 (2003)
Cruel but Not Unusual Punishment: The Failure to Provide Adequate Medical Treatment to Female Prisoners in the United States

handle is hein.journals/hmax13 and id is 435 raw text is: NOTE CRUEL BUT NOT UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT: THE FAILURE TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE MEDICAL TREATMENT TO FEMALE PRISONERS IN THE UNITED STATES Kendra Weatherhead I told the nurse that my water broke, and the officer took off the handcuffs so that I could put on the hospital gown. I was placed on a monitoring machine with the leg shackles still on. I was taken into the labor room and my leg was shackled to the hospital bed. The officer was stationed just outside the door. I was in labor for almost twelve hours. I asked the officer to disconnect the iron from the bed when I needed to use the bathroom, but the officer made me use the bedpan instead. I was not permitted to move around to help the labor along.' After complaining about needed treatment in a Sacramento County Jail, [a] 32-year-old Caucasian woman with a heart condition was held in a restraint chair for eight and one half hours in December 1995. She was allegedly forced to urinate on herself after pleading repeatedly to use the bathroom and was cursed at and taunted by guards. She is reported to have suffered cuts to her shoulders and damage to her wrists, feet and ankles from the tight leather straps and metal cuffs.,2 1 Amnesty Int'l, Not Part of Mv Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody, at http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/ AMR510011999 (Jan. 3, 1999). 2 id. 429