A Newsletter on Pregnancy & Parenting in Prisons JIWC Newsletter December 2022
About Our Newsletter Our newsletter features timely research, news, resources, and events at the intersection of incarceration, pregnancy, and parenting. This work is supported by the national Cross-Center Collaboration on the Health of Justice-Involved Women and Children (JIWC). The collaboration is made up of a group of formerly or currently HRSA-funded faculty, staff, and students from the following institutions’ maternal and child health (MCH) Centers of Excellence: the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, Emory, Harvard, the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Johns Hopkins, the University of Alabama, and the University of North Carolina.
Stay Connected to the JIWC! Have a resource, community spotlight, event, or research findings you’d like us to feature in our next newsletter? Email usand someone from our team will follow-up with you.
Virtual Research Series Structural Racism Analyzed: Role of Incarceration on Pediatric Health
Pregnancy Justice Book Talk: Prosecuting Poverty Criminalizing Care January 18, 2023, 5pm CT
Event Description: “Join Wendy Bach for a conversation with Khiara M. Bridges about Bach's new book Prosecuting Poverty, Criminalizing Care. Learn how states like Tennessee are increasingly using criminal prosecutions to impose involuntary healthcare treatments on pregnant people, and how this practice undermines community health, goes against current medical guidelines, and targets the most vulnerable among us for punishment and stigma. This event will be held virtually and is free to all participants.”
Abortion in Custody: Forced Pregnancy and Barriers to Care In a recent qualitative study, Kramer and colleagues conducted interviews to learn more about incarcerated people’s perceptions and experiences with abortion. They concluded: “Being incarcerated shaped pregnant people's abilities to access abortion, to consider whether it was even an option, their pregnancy decision-making processes, and their feelings about being pregnant. These subtle carceral control aspects were more prominent barriers to abortion than overt logistical ones. Incarceration constraints and devalues reproductive wellbeing, and in punitive ways that are a microcosm of broader forces of reproductive control in US society.” New Data from the National Corrections Reporting Program The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has administered the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) since 1983 to “monitor the nation's correctional population and address specific policy questions related to recidivism, prisoner reentry, and trends in demographic characteristics of the incarcerated and community supervision populations.” They recently released data from calendar year 2021. See Table 2 for information on pregnancy related outcomes in carceral contexts. Meta-Analysis: Inadequate Prenatal Care for Incarcerated People In their systemic review and meta-analysis, Hessami and colleagues survey pregnancy care and pregnancy outcomes amongst incarcerated people in the US. They found that pregnancy care in carceral settings is inadequate, and babies born to incarcerated mothers are at greater risk for lower birth weight. Sexual Victimization of Youth in Juvenile Justice Facilities Lauger and Field, statisticians from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), reported on the facility characteristics of juvenile justice facilities in relation to youth-reported sexual victimization. The report supplements the full report from BJS on Sexual Victimization Reported by Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018.
Recent News
In Alabama: Non-Pregnant Woman Incarcerated for Endangering a Fetus Etowah County leads the nation in the criminalization of pregnant women. Stacey Freeman was recently jailed for two days for the chemical endangerment of a fetus, except she wasn’t pregnant. County officials failed to provide a pregnancy test and ignored that she was menstruating. Charges have since been dropped, but not expunged. In California: Prison Warden Found Guilty of Sexually Abusing Incarcerated Women Former warden, Ray J. Garcia, was found guilty of sexually abusing three women at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. Garcia’s abuse was so well known that incarcerated people referred to it as “rape club.” When women reported the abuse, they were sometimes sent to solitary confinement or transferred to other prisons. Garcia also falsely promised early release in exchange for sexual relationships. In Colorado: Halfway House for Women and Transgender People After voting to cancel private prison contracts, Colorado faced bed shortages for incarcerated people. Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca said she’s “happy to see efforts to deinstitutionalize and rethink community corrections.” Project: Elevate is one such program–it’s a halfway house for women and transgender people. People live in halfway houses as they transition out of prison or are sometimes sentenced to halfway houses instead of prison all together. Residents can have jobs, spend time with family members through visitation, take classes, and design their own rooms. One resident states “I feel like I could breathe.” In New York: Hundreds of Previously Incarcerated Women Filing Suits Over Sexual Violence New York recently passed the Adult Survivors Act, which allows victims of sexual assault to file suits after the statute of limitations for criminal cases has experienced. At least 750 women who experienced sexual violence while incarcerated are set to file suits. Among them are Sadie Bell, who “suffered an ectopic pregnancy and was left infertile after being raped by a prison sargeant,” and Kia Wheeler who “was repeatedly and violently sexually assaulted for months by a guard.” The New York Timesreports that the “State Corrections Department has a long history of sexual abuse inside its prisons.” This Act is a first step in addressing this abuse. In Wisconsin: Fetal Protection Law Harms Families In Wisconsin, pregnant people are treated as a special legal class with fewer constitutional rights under the Unborn Child Protection Act (Act 292). Reports estimate that about 400 pregnant people a year are investigated. Wisconsin Watchreports: “Wisconsin is one of just five states that allow civil detention for pregnant people accused of substance use. Its legal proceedings take place out of public view, under seal, with a low standard of evidence and often a court-appointed attorney for the fetus — but none for the person gestating it. The law can require forced addiction treatment for the duration of pregnancy.” Non-compliance can translate to forcible separation or forced jail time during pregnancy. Learn more about Act 292 from Pregnancy Justice’s factsheet.
Meet Our Team
Rosie Laine (Editor) is a second year master’s degree student at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health in the Maternal and Child Health Programwith a minor in sexual health. She is especially interested in reproductive justice, patient advocacy, health education, and harm reduction.
Rebecca Shlafer (PhD, MPH) is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shlafer's research focuses on understanding the developmental outcomes of children and families impacted by incarceration. She is particularly interested in children with parents in prison, as well as the programs and policies that impact families impacted by incarceration. Dr. Shlafer is the research Director for the Minnesota Prison Doula Project.
Jennifer Saunders (MSW) is a doctoral candidate in the Health Services Research, Policy and Administration program in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Her research interest is health policy that impacts reproductive-age women and their families.
