Former inmate sues Jackson County over shackles during labor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former Jackson County, Missouri, inmate filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing county employees of cruel and unusual punishment for shackling her while she was pregnant and transporting her to a prison more than three hours away on the same day she gave birth.

Megon Riedel claims in the federal lawsuit in Kansas City she was 39 weeks pregnant Oct. 5, 2012, when workers at the Jackson County Detention Center put her in handcuffs and shackles and drove her to a state prison in Vandalia, Missouri, more than 200 miles away.

"I don't feel anybody should be treated that way," Riedel, 28, said during a phone interview Thursday. "It was hell."

The Jackson County Detention Center has come under scrutiny since the county and the FBI acknowledged in August they're investigating cases of guards accused of abusing inmates at the facility. The county also has appointed a citizens' task force to look into practices at the center.

A spokesman for the county declined to comment Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, Riedel told jail guards Oct. 4, 2012, she was in labor and needed to go to a hospital, but a nurse at the jail accused her of lying.

Jail employees took Riedel to a Kansas City hospital twice that same day, however, and doctors said she was a "high-risk" pregnancy and the jail needed a plan to deal with her eventual delivery, the lawsuit stated.

She was returned to the detention center that day and was awakened the next morning by jail employees telling her she was being transported to the prison in Vandalia, the lawsuit stated.

Riedel said she was "shackled and chained" and experienced vomiting and bleeding during the trip, which she said took over three hours.

"I was scared to death. I'm not even gonna lie," she said.

According to the lawsuit, a doctor examined her when she arrived at the prison and sent her to a nearby hospital, where she delivered a son the same day. In the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, Riedel accuses the county of violating her constitutional rights and of failing to train its jail employees.

"Shackling and chaining a pregnant prisoner while she is in labor violates the Constitution, and transporting her across Missouri in shackles and chains is beyond callous," Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement.

Riedel said she was released from prison Wednesday. Neither she nor the ACLU would say why she was in custody, but online court records showed a Megon Riedel pleaded guilty in September 2012 to delivery or possession of a controlled substance in a jail.