News

Virginia lawmakers have had enough of sheriffs abusing the ability to use shackles on children in court. Now, the question is whether Governor Glenn Youngkin will sign a bill into law that limits the practice. “Virginia law currently allows indiscriminate shackling of children in court. Children are forced to appear weighted down by handcuffs, leg irons, and belly chains,” Senator Lamont Bagby told colleagues in the Committee for Courts of Justice. He acknowledged that the overwhelming number of jurisdictions do not shackle youth at all. But there are about four jurisdictions across the state that shackle every child, he told members of the committee. “The goal of this is remedy the challenge of jurisdictions abusing the ability to shackle children in courtrooms,” he said. Babg...