At this point in the composing process, I felt way more confident about my work then I ever did in the course. I felt like I was finally getting somewhere and kept on improving based on your comments (my peers didn't help so much for the advocacy project, but that's okay). I did the bulk of the work when it came to researching and reading about shackling and you can tell just by skimming this draft. However, I did not engage with the scholars yet and only wrote about the first three points in the outline I presented at the bottom of the previous page. Your feedback for this draft was a turning point in my composing process, because then I knew what I really had to work on to ace this damn project.

Figure 1 shows your feed back for my workshop draft.

Figure 2 shows my direct responses to your comments which helped me to figure out what else I needed to cover in my essay.

The fact that you said you wanted to see me get an "A" on this project really motivated me to work my ass off. I knew what you were asking of me, so it made it much easier for me to develop my project for my final submission. From this point forward, I just kept repeating to myself "critically engage, critically engage, critically engage!" I took a lot of notes and made a lot of outlines to make sure that my AP was well-organized, well-structured, and had a strong argument. Below you can see that I eventually developed quite some enthusiasm for this project!

 Figure 3 and Figure 4 show my notes and outlines nearing the final submission for the advocacy project.

Bound by Injustice: The Use of Shackles on Pregnant Women

In the summer of 2009, women wore purple ribbons around their wrists instead of shackles during the press conference and rally outside of New York Governor David Paterson’s office. The rally, coordinated by organizations like the Correctional Association of New York, New York Civil Liberties Union, and Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), was held in support of state anti-shackling legislation and brought attention to the injustices pregnant inmates face in prison. After several public demonstrations and the relentless efforts of multiple advocacy groups, Governor Paterson finally signed the bill on August 26, 2009, outlawing the use of restraints on incarcerated mothers during labor, delivery, and recovery after giving birth, as well as limiting shackling during transport to and from the hospital for childbirth. Six years later however, the “barbaric and unconscionable practice” still persists as pregnant women are routinely shackled during labor and denied basic reproductive health care (Simone, The Indypendent). While advocates have orchestrated a remarkably successful effort to raise the public’s awareness of the issue and initiate policy change at state levels, anti-shackling legislation presents many challenges in their implementation. This egregious practice has been condemned by many medical and international humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, The Federal Bureau of Prisons, and American Medical Association, who considers the practice to be “medically hazardous” and out of line with the “ethics of the medical profession” yet, a variety of factors allow state prisons to illegally restrain women during childbirth despite laws that have been enacted banning the unjust method (Gebreyes, Huffington Post). Because of vague language in laws and such little oversight, anti-shackling laws essentially have no instrumental effects as they go unenforced in state prisons. In order for shackling practices to stop on the ground, states with anti-shackling laws already in place must implement comprehensive laws that educate correctional staff and hold institutions accountable to ensure that the rights of a vulnerable population are protected; doing so will create a ripple effect in other states as it already has done so in recent years. Furthermore, advocates must continue the historical conversation in order to create a widespread public consensus that recognizes the dignity of criminals and reminds people that inmates are human too.

As of 2016, twenty two states prohibit the shackling of pregnant women during labor: AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, HI, ID, IL, LA, PA, MA, MD, ME, MN, NM, NV, NY, RI, TX, VT, WA and WV (American Civil Liberties Union). Illinois was the first state to address the issue of using physical restraints in 2000 and several states followed soon thereafter, New York being the sixth state to enact such a statute in 2009. According to a report by the International Covenant on Civil Rights and Political Rights (ICCPR), in 2013, 16 states already had laws that restrict the use of restraints on pregnant inmates; 24 states limit the use of restraints on pregnant inmates only by policies; and 8 states have no laws or policies or any other form of regulation addressing the use of restraints on pregnant inmates. Among the 24 states that regulate the use of restraints only at the policy level, 5 have policies that do not meaningfully limit their use and 6 have not made their policies publicly available, or have done so only in summarized form. A table which can be found in the appendix of the report here, provides a summary of the status of laws and policies addressing the shackling of pregnant prisoners in the 50 U.S. states as of 2013. Since the publishing of this report, however, laws have been enacted in Maine, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Despite the progress that has been made through widespread human rights advocacy, legislation has proven to be mostly ineffective as there is no accreditation that requires correctional facilities to demonstrate adherence to such laws, thus, few prisons actually face repercussions for violating anti-shackling statutes, indicating that many women are still suffering.

One of these women includes Maria Caraballo, who delivered her daughter in 2010 while handcuffed to the hospital bed. Her story was covered by reporter Nina-Liss Schultz on Mother Jones Magazine. "They didn't even remove my cuffs for me to hold my baby," says Caraballo, who at the time was serving a prison sentence in New York for theft. "I had to hold my baby with one hand for two to three seconds. They didn't take my handcuffs off until after I was stitched up and in the prison ward, and I didn't see my baby until the next day" (Schultz, Mother Jones). Caraballo gave birth to her daughter a year after it became illegal to shackle incarcerated women
during childbirth in New York, but her experience wasn't necessarily unique.

New evidence published in 2015 suggests that many women continue to be shackled in violation of the law. The Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York (CA), the state’s oldest criminal justice reform group, did a 5 year in-depth study on prison health care for women entitled, “Reproductive Injustice: The State of Reproductive Health Care for Women in New York State Prisons”, which reveals a shockingly poor standard of care and the continued practice of shackling pregnant women during labor despite a state law prohibiting it. Based on surveys and interviews with 27 women who gave birth in correctional facilities after the 2009 Anti-Shackling Law went into effect, 23 of the 27 women (85%) who gave birth between 2009 and 2013 were shackled at least once in violation of the law, to which the CA concludes that the state is out of compliance with the law. Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Women in Prison Project, claims “there’s so little oversight. There’s so little public accountability. And then you have, piled on that, this widespread dehumanization and lack of public sympathy. All those are a recipe for laws not being followed” (Gebreyes, Huffington Post). Granted, this study only covers correctional institutions in New York, which was one of the leading states in regards to anti-shackling advocacy. There are many states with similar standards of care that do not receive nearly enough attention. The Rebecca Project for Human Rights, a Washington, D.C. based organization that advocates for vulnerable women in the United States also did a study, conglomerating a state by state report card and analysis of policies and conditions for pregnant women in prison. The report card gives states a letter grade based on the quality of their recognized standards and practices, which includes prenatal care and the shackling of pregnant inmates. Thirty-six states received a D or F for their failure to significantly limit the use of restraints on pregnant women during transportation, labor and delivery, and postpartum phase of pregnancy. The data to determine such grades was gathered from each state’s department of corrections’ (DOC) response to a series of questions developed by the Rebecca Project and the National Women’s Law Center. It is very difficult however, to pinpoint exactly how many of these states were in direct violation of anti-shackling laws as state institutions do not require incidents where restraints are used on pregnant women to be reported;  but considering the trend in research, it is apparent that many states failed to follow previously established policies and procedures. Conclusively, the existence of formal, written, and publicly available policies is a very essential component of enforcement in states that already have laws against the use of restraints on pregnant women as data collection furthers institutional accountability and ensures that women’s established rights are not being violated (sorry this sentence sounds weird and is probably a run-on but I’m too brain dead to fix it).

The difficulty in enforcing such laws can be attributed to the logic of safety and the assumption that all female inmates are dangerous and pose high security risks. Supporters of shackling offer several justifications for its continued use (this is where I will discussion opposition and talk about how the majority of female inmates are not dangerous; and while there are prisoners who may pose security threats, there are other forms of security that could be used/are already being used in place of shackling. Soon after I will begin to implement the scholars into my argument and get into the bulk of my advocacy position, discussing the real conflict of why shackling still exists, which is very similar to Michelle Alexander’s position in the NJC-- that advocacy on behalf of criminals is extremely difficult because of a lack of public sympathy and also because prisons are private institutions [we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors] )…. … extra info I plan on using later on: Furthermore, there is a public misperception that women in prison are not respectable mothers, unworthy of parenting and birthing in the first place. Women are highly marginalized group in the American criminal justice system. They are grossly underrepresented in mainstream society, and such an underrepresentation has led to a penal system in which the specific needs and concerns of female prisoners are ignored or forgotten.

Highlighted in blue is what I began to focus on in my final draft. Tackling this aspect of my essay is what helped me to land an "A" on the advocacy project.