Bill could keep pregnant Georgia inmates from being shackled, kept in solitary confinement
MACON, Ga. -- A bill waiting on governor Brian Kemp's signature could help a large portion of the state's prison population.
House Bill 345 would ban the shackling and solitary confinement of pregnant women in the state of Georgia.
One of the bill's architects, Pamela Winn, says it could make life easier for pregnant women who are incarcerated.
WGXA spoke to Winn in 2017 about this issue, and now she hopes to help other women so they don't have to go through the same traumatic experience that she did. She even founded and now directs the nonprofit RestoreHER, which works to help pregnant women who are in prison.
"It's very personal to me because I was shackled as well as put in solitary confinement while I was incarcerated, serving the 78-month federal sentence. And I started my time in a holding facility, a private facility that contracts with the feds, while being transported back and forth to court for sentencing. And during that time I was shackled and I fell, which caused me to miscarriage my baby," Winn says.
Now, the bill is just waiting on the governor's signature. Senator David Perdue's office told WGXA that he supported a similar federal bill called the First Step Act -- although it didn't include the new provision regarding solitary confinement.
Macon community member Waldra Tyler told WGXA HB 345 would bring positive change for inmates.
"They're already locked up. And when you're pregnant, you go through a lot of things, and having shackles and things of that nature, it's inhumane," Tyler says.
