The Florida Supreme Court has banned the widespread practice of shackling juvenile defendants in courtrooms, calling it “repugnant, degrading, humiliating and contrary to the state’s primary purposes of the juvenile justice system.”

In an unsigned 6-1 opinion, the court amended the rules of judicial procedure to state a juvenile defendant cannot be placed in handcuffs, chains, irons or straitjackets unless the court finds it necessary in specific instances.