NCJ Number
127930
Journal
Journal of the National Prison Project Issue: 14 Dated: (Winter 1987) Pages: 1-4
Date Published
1987
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article reviews court cases bearing on prenatal medical care for female inmates, alternatives to incarceration for mothers with young children, and parental rights for inmates.
Abstract
In Harris v. McCarthy (1987), the Los Angeles Federal District Court rendered a comprehensive settlement designed to ensure adequate prenatal medical care for pregnant inmates. The settlement details the treatment provisions necessary to ensure quality prenatal and post-natal medical care for inmates. In a pending suit filed by women inmates at the Santa Rita County Jail in 1986, plaintiffs allege they have been given grossly inadequate prenatal and post-natal medical care in violation of their constitutional and statutory rights. The parties are now in active settlement negotiation. In Rios v. McCarthy (1985), pregnant inmates and inmate mothers of young children in California State prisons alleged that the Department of Corrections was failing to implement properly the Mother-Infant Care Program, which mandates that eligible mothers of children under 6 years old be committed to halfway houses in their communities. Opposing attorneys are in settlement negotiation that is expected to improve and expand the program. In 1968 the Florida Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision to terminate the parental rights of an incarcerated father who had kept substantial contact with his children during his incarceration.