Hazel Figueroa is close to finishing her degree in Business Science at the University of Phoenix, New Jersey, and she gives thanks to God that her 9-year-old daughter is healthy, but her life wasn't always so promising. Ten years ago Figueroa was in prison and pregnant. When the time came to give birth, she was handcuffed and transferred to an ambulance.

"I think that it shouldn't have to be that way because under those conditions, the only thing a woman is focusing on is getting to the hospital on time so she can give birth to her child," said Figueroa. "To be in an ambulance or a hospital, handcuffed, with a bag of saline solution and a guard, and to be experiencing the pains of childbirth – what woman in her right mind would try to escape?" asked Figueroa.

For Rwanda Wright, giving birth was an even more terrible experience – labor lasted 36 hours, at the end of which she underwent a caesarean section. According to what Wright told this paper, "The nurse asked them to remove my handcuffs because they had to inject me with saline solution. Finally, after an argument, they released only one hand."

For both women, like the rest that rallied yesterday in front of the offices of Governor David Paterson, it is essential that he sign the "Bill against handcuffs," which prohibits putting female inmates in chains while they are on their way to the hospital, and during and after birth.

Although the bill was approved unanimously by the Senate and by most of the Assembly, the Department of Correctional Services is still debating whether women should have one or both hands cuffed while being transferred to the hospital.

Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D- NY District 18), who is sponsoring the bill together with Assemblyman N. Nick Perry (D- NY District 58), said, "If the woman is a risk it would be permitted, under the discretion of the superintendent, to handcuff one hand, but it would have to be a really extreme case because there has never been an incident where a woman has tried to escape during childbirth."

Governor David Paterson assured the protesters that assembled in front of his office in Manhattan that he will sign the bill so that female inmates will not be handcuffed while giving birth to their children.

"Bring me the bill and I will sign it," said the Governor, whose colleagues met Monday with Montgomery to settle the final obstacles in the drafting of the bill.

Both the senator and the governor expressed their disapproval of the use of handcuffs during the transfer to the hospital, and added that, to prevent an accident the woman would be secured to some stable part of the ambulance.