Call to Stop Jailing Pregnant Women in UK After Baby Dies in Prison Toilet

London: Vulnerable pregnant women are being imprisoned for non-violent offences, in some cases within just a few weeks of their babies’ due date, according to new research set to be published on Monday. It comes as a woman whose baby was stillborn in a prison toilet told the Observer that she will bring a lawsuit for breaches of human rights and discrimination because she did not receive the same standard of care as she could have expected in the community. Academics who examined the experiences of 22 women who were pregnant while serving time in English prisons have called for alternatives to custodial sentences to avoid putting expectant mothers and unborn babies at risk. The women were sentenced for offences including robbery, drug offences, burglary, fraud and shoplifting. All but two of the offences were non-violent. Six of the women were sent to prison at 28 weeks pregnant or later and three were 36 weeks pregnant.

The lead author, Rona Epstein of Coventry University, said the imprisonment of pregnant women was “unnecessary” and called for the use of community orders or suspended sentences instead. “The women we surveyed arrived in prison with a variety of complex needs stemming from poverty, homelessness, domestic violence and substance misuse,” she said. “The prison environment only adds another layer of trauma for these women and can be dangerous for the unborn child.”

Read more: Hannah Summers, Observer, https://rb.gy/18lpam