Pregnant prisoner chained for days

Published on Saturday 26 April 2008 19:48

A PREGNANT prisoner admitted to hospital with serious complications was kept handcuffed to guards on a metre-long chain, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Donna McLeish spent three days chained to a Reliance security officer while she slept, showered and used the toilet.

During a subsequent hospital stay, the 21-year-old Cornton Vale inmate was kept under 24-hour supervision by guards to stop her escaping, even though she was only able to walk with the aid of crutches.

Last night, a Scottish Prison Service insider admitted "mistakes were made" in the treatment of McLeish, who is seven months pregnant and serving two years for assault.

Her solicitor said she was considering suing Reliance, which has been dogged by prisoner escapes in the past and faces a 20,000 fine each time an inmate gets away.

Scotland's former chief inspector of prisons, Clive Fairweather, said: "This is degrading for the prisoner and the staff. You wouldn't treat an animal like this.

"Reliance are fined if a prisoner escapes, so rather than using common sense they use caution."

Cornton Vale, which houses most of Scotland's female prisoners, has been hit by a series of controversies in recent years, including eight suicides in the mid-1990s.

The practice of chaining pregnant prisoners during hospital visits, which campaigners say is degrading and inhumane, was halted south of the border more than a decade ago.

But the Scottish Prison Service, whose prisoner escorts are handled by the private firm Reliance, has been much slower to stamp it out.

When McLeish was admitted to hospital in March because of a blood clot on the placenta, she was kept handcuffed to a Reliance officer.

Her solicitor Gerard Sweeney witnessed the scene during a visit to his client on March 6.

He said: "Miss McLeish was on the bed. Also in the room were two Reliance officers, a male and a female. She was chained to the male officer with a lengthy chain.

"She told me that the Reliance officers were there 24 hours a day and that when she showered the chain was passed over the shower curtain and that when she went to the toilet she was still chained.

"The officers did not leave that room when she was resting or eating. I was quite appalled.

"This is my information coming from Miss McLeish and the officers who were present. This was also confirmed to me by the medical staff. Miss McLeish was fairly distressed and said she could not even eat."

Sweeney complained to Reliance staff and the chain was removed. But on her way to a second visit to hospital, she was handcuffed again.

McLeish was last week admitted to hospital for a third time, suffering from symphysis pubis dysfunction, a painful pregnancy-related condition, which means she is now on crutches and finds it difficult to walk.

On this occasion, however, she was not chained, but kept on a 24-hour watch by three Reliance guards – including male officers – in her room.

McLeish, who has a young son, Bobbi Ross, has detailed her treatment in a handwritten letter to the Scottish Prison Service.

Sweeney said: "What they should have done is carried out a risk assessment. It's a room on the first floor, the window has a safety catch, the girl is pregnant, there's one way in and one way out. They should have just put an officer on the door."

He added: "She may consider suing Reliance."

McLeish, a first-time offender, was sentenced to two years after being found guilty of attacking a student in a nightclub with a glass. The student was left scarred for life after the assault at Vienna's nightclub in Paisley last year.

Yesterday, Baroness Vivien Stern, patron of the Prisoners' Education Trust, said: "European standards forbid the shackling of women in hospital, especially pregnant women. It is inhuman and degrading, however people feel about prisoners. Having a man in the room with her is disgusting."

Professor Sheila Kitzinger, a childbirth expert who campaigned to halt the shackling of pregnant prisoners south of the border a decade ago, said she was "amazed" at the revelation.

She said: "It seems to me that Scotland is a decade behind England in this area. It's about humanity. If you want offenders to treat other people with respect, you have to treat them with respect and give them their rights."

Last night, McLeish's father Alexander, a site manager for a construction firm, said: "We are not looking for five-star treatment for our daughter. We realise she is in prison. We just want her to be treated with dignity and respect. She is very upset by everything that has happened."

The MSP for Glasgow Pollock, Johann Lamont, said: "This seems excessive. It does not seem to me that there was an appropriate risk assessment carried out. This has exposed something about Reliance's policies and these issues need to be addressed."

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken added: "If someone is dangerous, there may be no other way to secure them… Women in this position should not be shackled unless absolutely necessary. This lady had violent tendencies and clearly presented a difficulty, but this kind of restraint should be kept at a minimum."

A Scottish Prison Service insider said: "Mistakes were made, we addressed it and apologies were made. It shouldn't have happened."

Last night, a spokesman for Reliance said it had changed its policies following the incident. He added that it was not known how many other pregnant prisoners had been handcuffed to officers but that it would investigate any further complaints.

"We have recently modified our procedures in agreement with the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that pregnant female prisoners are not handcuffed to or from hospital or at the hospital," he said.

"We did have a case in March, (but this was] before the new guidelines were introduced."

Last night, a hospital spokeswoman said it understood the practice would now be halted.