Chicago Is Making the Case for Releasing Pregnant Inmates
Inside a tier reserved for pregnant women in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, a doula said to a group of six round-bellied women sitting at a metal table, “Tell me, who has had an epidural before?” A few hands darted into the air. The doula, Lanise Washington, asked what has to happen before someone can receive an epidural. “There’s an IV,” someone offered. “Don’t move when they do it!” a second woman added. A third young woman, clearly confused, said, “It’s like a spinal tap, right?” Finally, a mother in her sixth pregnancy jumped in to tackle the question. (An epidural, like a spinal tap, involves an injection into the spinal area, but it’s otherwise different.) Washington and a colleague also leading the prenatal class nodded approvingly. Both have spent years working as doulas with at-risk pregnant women on Chicago’s South and West Sides. Nowadays, they also serve women behind bars at Cook County Jail.
The women were here as part of Healthy Moms and Babies, a unique program that offers doula services to women in jail and tries to get them released before they deliver. Afterward, women who have been released receive home visits from a community health worker for the first five years of a child’s life. The program, led by the Cook County Sheriff’s Justice Institute, an advocacy wing of the sheriff’s office, along with a coalition of seven nonprofits, aims to improve mothers’ birth experiences—and, in turn, better the lives of
