November 25, 2010
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Jail Time For Being Pregnant
A woman was given jail time for getting pregnant.
The woman was on work release from jail. One of the rules of her work release was that she was not allowed to get pregnant. She got pregnant and so they sent her off to prison. She ended up dying in jail. Here is the link: Link
Is it fair to send the woman to jail because she got pregnant?
Comments (63)
First!
Sick.
That is so sad and unfair that that happened to her! The article says she died from medical neglect. They let her case of pneumonia go for weeks while she was asking for help for it.
What. the. fuck.
Not clicking the link because I’m too lazy.
If this happened in the US, I don’t see how they can control your sex life. As far as I know the government isn’t allowed to tell you if you can have a kid or not.
She couldn’t follow a simple fucking order to not get pregnant?
@seeker_nyc - You can’t order someone not to get pregnant. Also, birth control isn’t infallible.
That was a very biased article, but I still think the whole situation is messed up. Every single part of it.
The jailers should be on the other side of the bars. Murder is murder.
@TooComplicated2Explain - you can when you let her out of jail early on condition. Legally she’s still under penalty. In a just world, the killers would be found and brought to justice.
that is just fucked up.
@seeker_nyc - My thoughts exactly.
wait, what?! how does that make sense! what in the world? I have never heard of that happening to anyone. O.O I don’t think the law should control if you get pregnant or not….
the link doesn’t open inmy browser!!
But I Guess ti’s fair only because it is written and she knew about it beforehand. But i don’t think it’s just or HUMANE.
basically It doesn’t make sense to jail a pregnant woman esp if there will be no medical atention, adequate nourishment stuff like that, but she knew of the consequences
Why does it always have to be so dramatized? She didn’t go to prison for being pregnant. She was in prison for a crime she had been found guilty of and then allowed to leave as part of a group of privaleged inmates who are trusted enough to be allowed into a work release program. She then had her work release revoked for violating the terms of it. Terms which she chose to accept before being admitted to the program. If she had stolen a pack of gum, showed up late for work or any other of numerous work release violations she would still have had her work release revoked and been sent BACK to prison to complete her court ordered sentence for the actual crime she commited. The fact is she died from advanced pneumonia and pregnant or not without proper treatment she would have died. What’s really sad and tragic and unforgivable is not that she was sent back to jail for violating an agreement she freely chose to enter in to, but that the prison system failed to provide her proper care for the pneumonia she had.
When someone breaks the law, they have some rights taken away. I guess that means it’s possible that the right to carry a child can be removed from a woman while she is still under punishment for breaking the law. I do think it extremely shady of the court system to demand this of her though, and not offer any help or prevention. Like when a man is ordered to not produce any more offspring, then has a court-ordered vasectomy. There was just an avalanche of things that went wrong with this case, starting at her arrest. I also found it interesting that the article just up and said prostitution doesn’t hurt anybody…bizarre.
@tsh44 - @purplenurple_orangezorange - I agree with the two of you. Obviously the court had a vested interest in not seeing felons conceive and give birth while under a prison sentence. What if the child grows up and his/her mother is still in?
That’s not fair coa she doesn’t do something wrong, she’s not a murder , don’t do the abortion.
When the people decide to wake the fuck up and stop sleeping through the business taking place in their state and nation–only then will anything change. Laws are passed because people are too uninvolved and complacent to care. Hell, most of them would never consider missing the super bowl but somehow think how the state spends their money is a useless waste of time to be concerned about.
@TooComplicated2Explain - That’s why you just don’t have sex. Problem solved. If not getting pregnant keeps me out of jail, I’ll be sure to keep my legs closed.
No. Just, no.
If you are on work release and you get pregnant your ability to work may change due to sickness or other issues regarding the pregnancy.Work release is for the purpose of working, she did not go to jail for getting pregnant,she was returned to finish her sentence because she got pregnant.
I can understand that,
What I do not understand is why they did not get her medical help when she needed it, that made no sense and the ones responsible need to go to jail themselves.
@tsh44 - exactly.
What the hell??? seriously that, is complete bullshit!
This is a hard one. She was givin a chance to redeem herself on a work release program. She broke the rules of the program. You go back to jail. On the other hand you can not raise a child in jail. once the delivery has taken place, they remove the child right away and give it to a relative of the inmates recommendation. If there is no family then the State takes over the rights of the child. Either way its a lose, lose situation.
I don’t know that they should have put her back in jail but as others have said birth control doesn’t always work but abstinance does. I think the crime here is not that they returned her to jail but that they didn’t get her medical attention for the pneumonia. Obviously before she was past saving anyone with a brain could tell she was not faking and there was really something wrong.
Good.
Is it fair to let lawbreakers go unpunished?
Go back 30 years ago and that was pretty much standard policy in Ireland for any single women who became pregnant. Look up the Magdalene Laundries. Very disturbing.
@ShimmerBodyCream - That’s pretty much what I wanted to say, I just wasn’t sure how to word it. Thanks!
This tragedy could have been averted if there was proper medical staff at the jail she was in. Jails are overcrowded, guards think you’re pulling a fast one half of the time anyone complains they’re sick. The prisons need to change their medical practices – it’s total bullshit something like this can happen. I knew a guy that committed suicide while locked up all because he didn’t get his medication and he couldn’t go through the withdrawl pains. He was one of the best mechanics in the area, not some street junkie either. I know some guards like to make your life miserable in the bucket – I’ve been there. Could be, the same thing happened here.
Once again, people need to actually READ THE DAMN ARTICLE that Dan posted! I think he does this just to see if you’re all a bunch of ignorant morons who will just eat what you initially see without searching for any depth.
And apparently, most of you are.
except for…
@tsh44 - @seedsower -
Well, she did agree to it, so I guess I understand why they sent her to jail, but denying her medical treatment? Just no.
@raiderjester - I had read the article before I commented. It’s not against the law to shackle a prisoner who’s about to give birth because the bill still needed the House to pass it. It’s stupid to shackle a woman in labor. I agree. Just stupid. But not anything dastardly. The article seems to think that it’s wrong to send a woman to jail for getting pregnant. That’s the main point they’re trying to make. However, this was an inmate who was told not to get pregnant, and she did. So she went back to jail to serve the remainder of her sentence behind bars.
What the prison officials did here was just plain stupid.
@tsh44 - exactly
She should have been punished for violating terms of her work release. The fact that not getting pregnant was one of those terms is a completely different story, and it does not matter since she agreed to it. The crime here is the fact that she did not receive the medical care she deserved, not that she was sent back to jail for violating conditions of her work release (conditions to which she agreed).
Wow. I think thats sick that they gave her jail time for getting pregnant! Blah. Pathetic.
How can her work order her NOT to? & why would the punishment for that be jail time!? Maybe I should read the article!
I’m too lazy to click the link but it sounds very unlikely this was in the United States. However, if the person was released early under certain conditions and not getting pregnant was one of them…she should have been more careful until she was no longer on probation. I don’t think her medical needs should have been ignored either while she was in prison (gathered that from other commenters).
that’s it, i am done with this. if a job requires that you not get pregnant, then you should have to have something implanted as a requirement for the job.
it’s impossible for me to because it would get me fired to avoid having to give me anything, but i’m also in environments where males demand sex. so… i don’t have sex.
The term work release implies she was already in jail. If one of the terms of her work release was not to be having sex while she was supposed to be working, then she should have been prepared for the revocation of her work release time. The jail definitely should not have neglected her health. But she knew the terms of her work release agreement when she signed up for it.
@seeker_nyc - What I should’ve said is that I believe that it violates a person’s basic rights. There shouldn’t be some sort of law or ruling that dictates a person’s ability to procreate. Sure, it would help prevent bad parenting, but ultimately it’s unfair. And I would utterly amazed if there is not some sort of law or precedent that says you can’t do this.
i have always wondered how people are being taken cared for those who are pregnant in prison/jail. but like any other parole, if you broke a deal, well. that is the price we all have to pay.
but to be neglected, is the wrong way to treat people.
i thought i lived in the united states… i’m questioning that
poor woman.
@seeker_nyc - I do agree with you there. It’s dumb that they didn’t take care of her. But most people aren’t commenting on that. Title shock seems to be Dan’s favorite thing.
Yes.
Should she have been medically neglected? No.
The important statement that Im sure many people are overlooking is she was in jail in the first place!! If she hadnt been imprisoned in the first place it wouldnt have been a problem. One of the reasons she was imprisoned was prostitution – which the article claims ‘hurts nobody’ and is an argument for a different day – so it was perfectly reasonable to set one of the conditions as not getting pregnant!
@raiderjester - yeah Dan does preface his posts with misleading titles, but I guess it only takes a little more effort to read the link that he provides nearly every time.
@TooComplicated2Explain - The Constitution abolishes slavery and ownership of another person except when that person is serving out a prison sentence. So clearly this woman’s ass belonged somewhere.
And prisoners do have rights, I agree. She should have gotten medical attention.
There’s an old country song that sings, “Only in Americaaaaaaaaaaa”. Seriously, by Brooks’n'Dunn. That’s even the name of the song, “Only in America”. This story is one of the reasons I do not listen to country.
@TheGildedCage - Oh, it was in the U.S.
@Rob_of_the_Sky - lol That was all you wanted to comment?
I’m trying to figure out how she even got pregnant if she was in jail. Sounds like the prison guard/s was/were raping her.
@FKIProfessor - Is it fair to be imprisoned for hunger (shoplifting food) and trying to survive (prostitution)?
It’s her fault -_- She knew that she wasn’t allowed to get pregnant and she did. The only problem I see is that she didn’t get proper medical attention. Just because she was pregnant doesn’t mean she was extra special (probably more stupid considering she got herself back into jail).
@a12906 - She was let out to work and got pregnant outside of jail.
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you should not go to jail just for getting pregnant, it is a womans job on earth to get pregnant..
I mean, I’m not saying she deserved it…. but she couldn’t just NOT have sex while she was under probation? All the people are “THEY CAN’T CONTROL YOUR SEX LIFE, BIRTH CONTROL ISN’T INFALLIBLE.” If she knew the effing terms, she should have just made the decision to… oh, I don’t know… not have sex.
@tsh44 - Thank you for saying what I was thinking.
@HoldOnFor1MoreDay - No problem
I was a little upset at first about reading that they put her to jail for getting pregnant. Then I was reminded what work release meant. She was only suppose to be going to work and back to where he was housed. She was doing something that she wasn’t suppose to be doing. Naturally jail time is understandable I suppose Lol.
Dying in jail because they neglected medical care and what not….not cool.
@seeker_nyc - it’s a shame how few would actually do that.
I think the issue that people are failing to recognize is the issue of gender equality. Yes, she violated the terms of her work release, but the county should not be allowed to create such a requirement. According to the article that I read, being pregnant was proof that she had sex. How could they equally enforce this same law upon men? The point is, you simply cannot and it is unfair.
That is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t believe that’s even applicable law.
No. Of course not.