{"id":7376,"date":"2026-03-10T11:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=7376"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:17:09","slug":"calls-for-independent-investigation-after-pregnant-prisoners-handcuffed-to-officers-whilst-giving-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/03\/10\/calls-for-independent-investigation-after-pregnant-prisoners-handcuffed-to-officers-whilst-giving-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION AFTER\u00a0PRISONERS HANDCUFFED\u00a0TO OFFICERS\u00a0WHILST GIVING BIRTH\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Guardian has reported that pregnant women prisoners in England are being handcuffed to prison officers \u2013 often male \u2013 during intimate examinations and long, agonising births.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Joanna went into labour on 30 December 2022, she was taken to hospital, handcuffed and chained to a prison officer. She remained so for the 36 hours of a long, difficult birth. \u201cI was crying so much that my nose was too blocked to use any of the breathing techniques,\u201d Joanna says. \u201cI\u2019m the kind of person who is good at researching my rights. So many people had told me during my pregnancy that I wouldn\u2019t have to give birth in handcuffs. I was taken to hospital chained to an officer with handcuffs but assumed they would be removed at the entrance to the hospital. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Joanna told the prison guards of her right not to be handcuffed during labour, as per the advice issued by Birth Companions,<\/a> officers told her they were not aware of such a rule.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following news of Joanna\u2019s ordeal, Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, announced last June that an independent investigation would be carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman into the practice of handcuffing pregnant prisoners during antenatal appointments, intimate examinations and labour.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jane Ryan, a\u00a0Solicitor now\u00a0representing\u00a0six female prisoners who were handcuffed in these circumstances,\u00a0believes that some\u00a0250 women may have given birth while incarcerated between\u00a02021 to 2025\u00a0–\u00a0the period to be covered by the investigation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerningly, Ms Ryan maintains that the investigation does not comply with human rights standards and is calling for an independent investigation to ensure that witnesses \u2013 including prison officers and private contractors \u2013 can be held to account and victims\u2019 voices heard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further information, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian has reported that pregnant women prisoners in England are being handcuffed to prison officers \u2013 often male \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Amelie","author_link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/author\/amelie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The Guardian has reported that pregnant women prisoners in England are being handcuffed to prison officers \u2013 often male \u2013 […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7378,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376\/revisions\/7378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}