US shackles women prisoners during childbirth

That's right folks - right here in the land of the free - according to a "465-page 'shadow report' [assembled by a coalition of 142 U.S.-based non-profits and organizations and 32 individuals] for the United Nation's Human Rights Committee as part of its review of U.S. human rights abuses later this month."

Its claims include:

• Immigration: The physical abuse and poor detention conditions many non-citizens face when they attempt to enter the U.S., the failure of U.S. immigration law to adequately protect refugees, asylum seekers and immigrant families and respect their right to due process, and discrimination against migrant workers;
• Hurricane Katrina: The racially discriminatory evacuation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and discriminatory policies in the hurricane's aftermath that have restricted residents' right to vote, ability to participate in the rebuilding process and access to basic necessities;
• Domestic Use of Torture: The failure of the government to prosecute Jon Burge, a Chicago police officer implicated in a torture scandal that advocates have labeled the "Abu Ghraib in the United States," despite several federal investigations that conclusively found that the city's police department routinely tortured suspects;
• Juvenile Justice: The sentencing of youth and teens to life in prison without the possibility of parole; and
• Prison conditions within the United States, such as shackling women prisoners during childbirth, limitations on prisoners' access to courts, lack of access to adequate health care, rape and discrimination against minorities that violate international human rights standards.

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