Unanimous: VA lawmakers want to limit sheriffs using shackles on children in court

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.

Babgy was making the case for his bill SB 1255, which prohibits the use of physical restraints in the courtroom unless a commonwealth’s attorney or the court files a motion to have a child restrained.