by Douglas Ankney

"The value of human life in prison and jail is worth less—including for these children, because of who their parents are. They are born with a stigma or they are not even born at all because they are viewed as not worthy of life,” said attorney Julia Yoo, former president of the National Police Accountability Project.

Yoo’s comment was in response to a year-long investigation by Bloomberg Law and NBC News that revealed horrific, systemic failures in the treatment of pregnant women detained in America’s jails. The investigation “relied on thousands of pages of legal complaints, depositions, police reports, medical and jail records, and body camera and surveillance video.”

Investigators interviewed more than 60 people, a dozen of whom are formerly incarcerated women. Also, the reporters, in “a first-of-its-kind analysis of federal civil rights lawsuits from 2017 to 2024” found that “at least 54 pregnant women or their families have alleged severe mistreatment or medical neglect in jails.” In those 54 cases, only 21 babies survived; twelve suffered infections, disease or birth defects believed to have been preventable if only the mothers had received adequate care. Six women delivered live babies but the infants died within days, while another six experienced stillbirths and sixteen suffered miscarriages. Four of the women lived through ectopic pregnancies, which are often fatal. Some of these women hemorrhaged for days and required liters of blood transfusions. Two women died.

In 2017, in a cell at the Franklin County Regional Jail in Kentucky, a screaming, eight-months-pregnant Kelsey Love was considered a suicide risk. Detoxing from methamphetamine after being incarcerated on suspicion of driving under the influence and receiving stolen property, Love was placed in an observation cell. At 5:11 a.m., a body camera captured a deputy jailer observing Love lying naked on the floor and holding her belly. In response to the deputy’s questions, Love said her legs and back hurt and requested a doctor. The deputy said she needed to know what was wrong in order to summon a doctor.

Love answered, “I don’t know but something’s wrong with him.” Moaning, she said, “I need to go. He’s coming out. It hurts. I don’t know. Why won’t you help me?” After the deputy confirmed that Love had given birth before, she asked Love, “Does it feel like you’re having contractions?” Love answered “Yes.” The deputy left Love alone on the floor. Love was heard screaming but no one reported a medical emergency.

Hours later, a nurse and a deputy discovered that Love had torn her sleeping mat and wedged herself inside it. Blood was smeared across the floor, walls and door. The deputy called for gloves and said, “Love, what have you done? Jesus Christ.” The nurse kneeled at Love’s side and found a newborn baby. Love, after giving birth, had scooped mucus from the infant’s mouth, tied the umbilical cord with a used condom that was under a bench, chewed through the umbilical cord, then crawled into the mat with him to keep him warm. Her son, Xayden, survived.

But not all stories share accounts similar to Love’s. In the summer of 2019, then 20-year-old Chasity Congious had schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and developmental disabilities. She grew tired of being called “slow” and longed for a chance to be like other 20-somethings. The night she conceived, it was with someone she wanted to marry. “I wanted to start a new life,” Congious said. “I’m somebody, too. I get a chance in this world, right?” According to a police report, when Congious was five months pregnant, she became angry, paranoid, and bit her brother when he tried to restrain her.

Kim Hammond, Congious’ mother, worked as a crisis intervention therapist. Hammond, recognizing Congious was in the throes of a psychotic break and fearing she may harm the baby, dialed 911 to get Congious admitted to a psychiatric ward. Instead, Fort Worth police arrived, arrested Congious for biting her brother, and booked her into the Tarrant County Jail (TCJ).

Locked in a cell at the TCJ, Congious’ mental state deteriorated. She refused meals and stopped speaking. TCJ medical reports described her as “child-like.” Nurses warned that she might not recognize she was in labor and an OB-GYN at the TCJ recommended that labor be induced to better control her labor. But TCJ officials did nothing. Even though TCJ staffers were just “feet away” from Congious’ cell door, they claimed she never cried out for help. Congious says when labor contractions became stronger, she began bleeding and experienced soaring pain. She pressed the emergency intercom button but no one responded. She couldn’t rise from the thin dirty mat, so she started pushing. A baby girl emerged into the pant leg of Congious’ TCJ uniform.

The infant struggled to breathe with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, a common problem normally remedied by a doctor. But Congious was alone on the cold jail floor. Paramedics eventually arrived and observed the infant with the umbilical cord still wrapped around her neck. The baby girl had no pulse and was rushed to Cook’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. Congious was sent to a different hospital, then returned to the TCJ. The infant lived for ten days in a small plexiglass incubator, tubes keeping her alive. She never emerged from a coma and doctors withdrew life support on May 27, 2020.

Congious never got the opportunity to even hold her daughter. The TCJ refused to permit Congious a visit to the hospital or to even attend the funeral. Six days after the funeral, Congious was freed. Then, while hospitalized for inpatient mental health treatment as her family had originally intended, the assault charge against Congious was dropped. It is said that “these conditions can’t continue.” But they do, regularly and routinely, across the country:

In Georgia, an expectant mother begged for 13 hours to be taken to a hospital. Her cries were ignored and she gave birth to her son in her cell. He died four days later.

A Louisiana pregnant jail detainee was told by a nurse to “shut the f*ck up and go back to your corner.” The detainee then gave birth on a toilet.

A pregnant woman held in a California jail went into premature labor. While being “rushed” to the hospital, the guard stopped at a Starbucks for coffee. The baby died.

A pregnant woman jailed in Navarro County, Texas repeatedly requested to go to the hospital. Her requests were denied until it was too late. EMS arrived at the jail mid birth. Twins were born, suffering cerebral palsy, kidney failure and respiratory issues due to premature birth in a jail cell. One of the twins later died from health complications.

Lauren Kent, who was homeless, addicted to methamphetamine, and pregnant, was detained at the Collin County Jail in Texas for buying groceries on a credit card she found in a parking lot. After complaining of cramping and bleeding and being told to “prove it” by collecting two soaked menstrual pads within 30 minutes, a jail nurse told Kent “Your problem is more behavioral than medical.” Kent continued crying and holding her stomach, begging for help. She ended up miscarrying into her cell toilet. The last thing Kent saw as she was wheeled from her cell on a stretcher was the nurse pulling her baby from the toilet and dropping his five-inch body into a medical waste bag.

The examples above do not come close to providing a complete picture of the horrifying mistreatment of pregnant women in America’s jails on a daily basis. These conditions truly cannot continue. But what is the solution?

Experts begin with the obvious: stop putting pregnant women in jail for low-level offenses and things like probation violations. And there is absolutely no need to jail someone in need of hospital admittance for mental health treatment. America incarcerates women at a rate higher than all other nations. While tens of thousands of these women are pregnant, the American criminal legal system has nearly nonexistent safeguards meant to protect these expectant mothers and their babies. At least nine states, including Hawaii, Iowa, and Maine, require no training for jail staff in the treatment of pregnant women. In those states where jail regulations require consideration of pregnancy, the measures usually require only pregnancy tests, special diets, and prohibitions on use of shackles during birth.

And jails, like most prisons, contract with for-profit private medical providers that are both money-motivated and contractually obligated “to find cheaper treatment options” for medical care provided to incarcerated people. This includes limitations on sending detainees to the hospital, including pregnant women. As Sheriff Gabriel Morgan of Newport News, Virginia explained: “Most jails in the country are not equipped and are not trained to handle most pregnant women. Jail is not the place for them.” Attorney Yolanda Huang, who represented pregnant women in California’s jails, added that “many facilities treat maternal health like a cold or a dislocated shoulder. They’re not going to give these women any special treatment.” But pregnancy indeed does require special treatment.

The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists advises that “pregnant women should have access to healthy food and prenatal vitamins [and] routine exams, blood tests, and ultrasounds [to] help prevent life-threatening complications.” But in jail, pregnant women (like other detainees) must repeatedly fill out request forms in order to see a medical professional.

Some jails, like the one where Kent was held, require pregnant women to prove they have bled a certain amount before they will be taken to a hospital. And all too often, women reported giving birth at jails where only guards with no medical training were present. Pregnant women should not be in jail just as babies should not be in graves with tombstones.  

Source: NBC News

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