On December 6, 2018, ECBAWM filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman who was shackled by the NYPD for approximately 30 hours after she was arrested in the Bronx for a misdemeanor. The woman, who is known as Jane Doe in this suit, was repeatedly restrained by numerous different NYPD officers even as she went into labor and was taken to Montefiore Medical Center in the early morning of February 8, 2018. She was forced to labor in shackles, in extreme pain. Although officers partially removed the shackles minutes before Jane Doe gave birth, they reapplied them shortly after. Jane Doe was forced to welcome her baby into the world with her arm chained to her hospital bed.

The shackling of pregnant women is a barbaric and degrading practice. It is universally denounced by medical and correctional experts as dangerous and unnecessary. It has been illegal in New York for years. Doctors at the hospital reportedly warned the officers that their use of shackles posed serious health risks to Jane Doe and her child, and violated the law. The officers ignored these warnings, claiming that the Patrol Guide required the use of shackles and superseded any law to the contrary.

Through her suit, Jane Doe seeks to end the NYPD’s use of this draconian and illegal practice and ensure that no pregnant woman is shackled by the NYPD again.

Jane Doe is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Katie Rosenfeld and Ashok Chandran. The case was covered by the New York Times.