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Original Document was not given adequate medical treat­ Women have had unnecessary ment. A third plaintiff not only suffered hysterectomies and suffered severe a late-term miscarriage after months of complications after delivery. bleeding and cramping, she also reqUired a complete hysterectomy. Plaintiffs al­ which will consist of the OB-managing leged that defendants' failure to provide physician, nurse, midwives, nurse practi­ them with adequate medical care during tioners, a pharmacist, and other neces­ and after their pregnancies resulted in a sary personnel and will act to provide number of infant deaths, still-births and each woman with coordinated health miscarriages, as well as several incidents emergency treatment and high risk pro­ where women had to have unnecessary tocols; 3) implement detailed emergency hysterectomies and suffered severe com­ treatment and high risk protocols devel­ plications after delivery. oped in the course of the settlement Because of the particularly strong -continued from front page discussions; 4) implement a number of and comprehensive nature of the settle­ cerated mothers and their children are other changes with respect to the provi­ ment, we are optimistic that the lawsuit receiving a greater amount of attention sion of care for high-risk pregnant will have implications not only for and response. Legal Services for Pris­ women and women with regular preg­ women prisoners at CIW, but also that oners with Children in California has fo­ nancies and 5) report regularly to plain­ it will lead to improved treatment for cused on several critical areas of concern tiffs, their attorneys, and the court women prisoners in other states and to incarcerated parents in the last sev­ concerning the implementation of the jurisdictions. eral years. We have made some im­ settlement for a period of 18 months. provements in conditions within the Plaintiffs and their attorneys are Prenatal Conditions Suit Pending institutions and in the programs which very pleased with the results of the set­ Against Santa Rita County Jail affect these parents and children. We tlement, since we feel that, if the De­ In February of 1986, women pris­ have also filed conditions lawsuits on be­ partment of Corrections complies with oners at the Santa Rita County Jail in half of pregnant women prisoners in the terms of the settlement, prisoners at Alameda County, California, filed suit state and county jails. Challenges have CIW are far more likely to receive good against county jail officials, alleging that been made to the lack of effective alter­ prenatal and post-natal medical care. they had been given grossly inadequate natives to imprisonment for mothers The lawsuit was filed in September prenatal and post-natal medical care in with young children, and we have scruti­ of 1985 by women prisoners at CIW violation of their constitutional and stat­ nized the policies and procedures of who had suffered miscarriages, infant utory rights. The lawsuit, Jones v. Dyer, state social services agencies which place deaths, hysterectomies or other trau­ seeks not only injunctive relief to im­ these children in foster care. Some vic­ matic pregnancy-related conditions. prove the overall quality of medical care tories have been achieved in these areas, Plaintiffs were represented by Legal Ser­ for pregnant women, but also the crea­ but much remains to be done. vices for Prisoners with Children, the tion of a halfway house alternative for law firm of Heller, Ehrman, White and pregnant women and new mothers who Prenatal Medical Care for Women McAuliffe in San Francisco, and the would otherwise be confined to the jail Prisoners Southern California ACLU. during their pregnancies or separated On April 20, 1987, Judge John Dav­ Plaintiffs alleged that pregnant from their newborns at birth. ies of the Federal District Court in Los women at the prison were being de­ The plaintiffs are represented by Angeles approved the final settlement in prived of adequate prenatal and post­ the law firm of Public Advocates and the Harris v. McCarthy, a lawsuit filed on be­ natal medical care in violation of their office of Legal Services for Prisoners half of pregnant and postpartum state constitutionally protected right to be prisoners in California. A strong and free from cruel and unusual punishment. THE comprehensive settlement covers all as­ The suit was filed as a class action on pects of prenatal and post-natal medical behalf of seven named women prisoners, care. It was based, in part, on prenatal and the class of pregnant women at the J UL OF THE care standards developed by the Amer­ Southern California prison. NATIONAL PRISON PROJECT ican College of Obstetrics and Gyne­ The lawsuit alleged a wide range of cology, and was carefully reviewed by deprivations in the provision of medical Editor: Jan Elvin respected e>q>erts in the field. care, including denial of adequate medi­ Editorial Asst.: Betsy Bernat Specifically, the settlement requires cal care in pregnancy-related emergency defendants (California Department of and life-threatening situations, inadequate Alvin J. Bronstein, Executive Director Corrections and the California Institu­ care following delivery, inadequate treat­ The National Prison Project of the tion for Women) to I) allow pregnant ment of critically high-risk women, dis­ American Civil Liberties Union Foundation 1616 P Street, N.W. women to receive regular treatment and semination of prescription drugs to Washington, D.C. 20036 monitoring of medical care by a qualified pregnant women which were contra­ (202) 331·0500 OB-GYN. (Prior to the filing of the law­ indicated during pregnancy, and other The National Prison Project is a tax-exempt foundation­ suit, many pregnant women at CIW serious violations. Plaintiff Annette Har­ funded project of the ACLU Foundation which seeks to strengthen never saw an obstetrician while at the ris lost her baby at five months after and protect the rights ofadult and juvenile offenders; to improve overall conditions in correctional facilities by using existing ad­ prison until they were brought to an gestation after bleeding and cramping for ministrative, legislative and judicial channels; and to develop al­ outside hospital to deliver); 2) create a over two weeks without, plaintiffs al­ ternatives to incarceration. The reprinting ofJOURNAL material is encouraged with the Pregnancy Related Health Care Team, leged, treatment or without being seen stipulation that the National Prison ProjectJOURNAL be credited or examined by an OB-GYN. She went with the reprint. and that a copy of the reprint be sent to the editor. Ellen Barry is the Director of Legal Ser­ into labor after she had been prescribed The JOURNAL is scheduled for publication quarterly by the vices for Prisoners With Children, /3/7 f1agyl; the baby lived two hours. A sec­ National Prison Project. Materials and suggestiOns are welcome. 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94/07, ond plaintiff gained 120 pounds during The National Prison ProjectJOURNAL is designed by James 4/5/824-/070. her pregnancy, but, it was alleged, she True. Inc. 2 WINTER 1987 with Children in San Francisco. Plaintiffs v. McCarthy, a lawsuit on behalf of preg­ have won two motions for contempt nant mothers and mothers of young chil­ due to defendants' refusal to comply dren in California state prisons on June with discovery requests, and have been 5, 1985, alleging that the Department of awarded sanctions on both occasions. Corrections was failing to properly im­ The parties are now in active settlement plement the Mother-Infant Care Pro­ negotiation. gram in violation of California state stat­ utory and constitutional provisions. Alternatives to Incarceration for Plaintiffs were granted a temporary re­ Mothers and Children straining order placing four pregnant One of the most critical efforts women in the Mother-Infant Care Pro­ identified by Legal Services for Prisoners gram immediately after the birth of their with Children was the need to expand infants, and three weeks later, defend­ available alternatives to incarceration for ants agreed to place several other of the women in prison who had infants or named plaintiffs immediately in the Pro­ young children. This concern was based gram with their young children. on several factors: the intolerable over­ Specifically, the lawsuit alleged that crowding that currently exists for the defendants failed to properly screen women prisoners both in California state and administer the Program, failed to women's prisons and in prisons through­ properly advise prisoners of the program out the nation, the tremendous cost­ in violation of the statutory provisions, effectiveness of using alternatives to unfairly denied applicants who were, in incarceration, both on financial and fact, eligible for the program, and im­ humane levels, and the enormous dam­ properly denied applicants an adequate age done to both mothers and children right to appeal denials. In addition, the by the separation due to parental incar­ lawsuit claimed that the program itself ceration. In California, Section 340 of was inadequately funded, and that insuffi­ A mother at the Children's Center playing with the Penal Code allowed for placement of cient resources were being provided for her child and two others. the primary caretaker of a child under medical care, counseling and programs the age of six years in a halfway house for the children. The Youth Law Center community facility provided that the par­ of San Francisco filed a companion case, carceration. Funding is still not adequate ent met certain screening criteria con­ In Re Maria G., making similar allegations to maintain a comprehensive program cerning length and type of sentence and on behalf of the children who might be for mothers and children; additional sites prior ability to appropriately care for placed in the alternative program. must be opened in order to accommo­ children. The law was originally drafted Since the filing of Rios v. McCarthy date the eligible clients and children; in 1978, enacted in 1979, and amended four additional halfway houses have been standards for acceptance must be fairly in 1981.
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