prison nursery final pres

“Prison Nurseries

and Pregnant Inmates”Presented By:

Elizabeth CervantesJuly 17,2013

CM220Final Project

What is a Prison Nursery?Prison nurseries have been defined as programs that “allow a mother to parent her infant from birth till the age of 3 years old varying in location to live within a special housing unit at the prison.”

Prison Nursery Requirements

◾ pregnant at the time she is delivered into the custody of the Department of Correction◾ Earliest possible release date is not more than eighteen months after the projected delivery date◾ Has never been convicted of a violent crime or any type of child abuse or child endangerment determined by the pediatrician◾ Offender and her child must meet established medical and mental health criteria determined by the pediatrician

Prison NurseryThe child is often vulnerable to disease due to lack of cleanliness,

malnutrition for minimal lack of food in some states only a portion to share between mother and child and possible abuse by other prisoners or prison guards.

Prison Diseases• Viral hepatitis (A, B, C,

and D),• HIV infection,

• Tuberculosis disease,• Tuberculosis

chemoprophylaxis,• Sexually transmitted

diseases,• Endocarditis prophylaxis,

and varicella.

Physical Transmission: Touching, Sexual Intercourse, coughing, contact with soil

Carrier-Borne: food, water,clothing,tattooing

equiptment or contaminated syringesAir-Borne

Transmission-:Poorly ventilated and scarcely

heated rooms

Health At Risk

Arisela Duarte v. New YorkInmate Duarte is Awaiting trial for Attempted Murder and Assault. She appealed her case after being rejected for admission into the nursery program. Duarte appealed her admission case and the Supreme Court granted her petition and ordered the City to admit her to the Nursery Program, saying, "The sole criterion set forth in [section 611(2)] for the return of a newborn to its inmate mother ... and its remaining in the care of its mother in prison is the welfare of the child.... The only basis for denial of an inmate's request to care for her child in prison ... is a finding by the chief medical officer of the correctional institution that the mother is physically unfit to care for her child."

Duarte's pending charges and criminal history "show that she

poses a threat to the safety and security

of her unborn child as well as to the other mothers and their

babies in the Nursery Program.“

-Riker Island Warden

Past Criminal History:• Second degree gang assault with intent to cause

serious physical injury, • Two charges of gang assault in the first and second

degrees, • First degree assault with a weapon, • Two second degree assault charges • Weapons possession• Graffiti • Assaulting another inmate.

Safety

If Pregnant Woman Are Mistreated…How will they treat infants?

Pregnant Woman near her due-date, complained of leaking amniotic fluid; seeking medical attention for two weeksAfter weeks of neglect from the prison staff, she finally received attention and received an ultra-sound

The doctor told her that all the amniotic fluid is gone and that her unborn baby’s skull collapsed. The jail officialsDelayed taking her to the hospital, putting her at risk for septic shock the longer the fetus remained inside her.

A prison nursery was discontinued in BC for unknown reasons to the public

but an officer mentioned this:“Our staff are not trained to supervise infants and they’re not (trained)

in infant first aid or anything..If something went wrong we didn’t respond appropriately,

we just couldn’t risk putting an infant in that situation

“Don’t Punish the Child for a

Mother’s Self-fishDecision!”

“In order to Save the Child, You must save the mother first!”

-Liz

Referenceshttp://www.bop.gov

http://www.theprisonbirthproject.org

(Woman’s Prison Association,2009)

(Roth, Rachael 2010”Pregnant, In Prison and Denied Care”)