Baby dies in prison after pregnant mother gives birth alone

[RedToothBrush]

amp.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/04/baby-dies-in-uk-prison-after-inmate-gives-birth-alone-in-cell?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&__twitter_impression=true
Baby dies in UK prison after inmate ‘gives birth alone in cell’
Police investigate unexplained death at Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey

The case raises serious questions about how the woman came to be unsupervised and without medical support during her labour and birth, and about the conditions at the privately run prison.

And

Bronzefield is Europe’s largest female prison, holding up to 557 inmates, and is operated by Sodexo Justice Services. Concerns have been raised previously about the care of prisoners.

In the case of Natasha Chin, who died at HMP Bronzefield in 2016, an inquest jury found that neglect and systemic failings at the prison had contributed to her death. Four women have died at Bronzefield since July 2016.

There is a mother and baby unit at the prison and women whose babies are born in prison, or who already have a baby when they enter prison, can keep the infants with them until they are 18 months old.

And

Jane Ryan, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors who specialises in cases of women in prison, said: “There are serious concerns raised about risk issues arising from lack of access to midwives when labour commences, access to pregnancy records and full maternity care. It is an indictment of our prison system that a woman was giving birth in a prison cell. There must be a full independent investigation, and possibly an inquest, into these horrific circumstances.”

Dr Kate Paradine, the chief executive of the charity Women in Prison, said: “All mothers should have the right to give birth in dignity. But time and time again, we hear of situations where this isn’t happening, with mothers regularly being denied access to the vital health and maternity care necessary to give birth safely. This has devastating consequences not only for the baby and mother, but also for the rest of the family they are separated from.”

Worst bit?

A spokesman for the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman, an independent body which investigates deaths in prisons and detention centres, confirmed that they are not investigating the baby’s death and said it was not part of their remit.

Like WTF?!

The Ombudsman have a remit to investigate when prisoners die in prison. The baby wasn't a prisoner, so it's not within their jurisdiction. Just like they wouldn't investigate if a member of staff or a visitor or volunteer died in prison. There might be an inquest though. We don't know whether the pregnancy was known, whether the mother was at full term and whether she sought assistance. When I worked in prisons, many's the time we rushed women out to hospital to ensure the baby wasn't born in prison.

Also, as someone said upthread, people are misunderstanding what the Ombudsman is. As with any ombudsman for any sector, it's independent of the prison itself, the prison service and Sodexo. Otherwise, the prison would be investigating itself, which would not have much credibility. As I said in my last post, I'd imagine there will be an inquest, and the coroner will have the legal authority to investigate, call witnesses etc, the family may have legal representation, there may be expert testimony from medical experts. It's pretty rigorous. I'd rather be interviewed by the Ombudsman team than be called to an inquest. And I've experienced both more than once.

When I worked in prisons, many's the time we rushed women out to hospital to ensure the baby wasn't born in prison.

Same here, AssangesCat. If the woman's labour was too speedy for us to reach the nearby hospital and the baby was born en route, the prison always got the hospital to agree to be listed as place of birth so that the name of the prison did not appear on the baby's birth certificate. Every care was taken.

Indeed, I remember doing the escort risk assessment on a young woman due to give birth where the baby was to be taken into care immediately, the woman had a history of self harm, was considered an escape risk and had self harmed on her belly while pregnant, so we were concerned she might attempt to harm the baby. Still we made every effort to treat her and the baby with dignity and compassion. Quite a few staff put their name down to be called out when she went into labour, then when it happened they were all at the same party and had drunk alcohol so couldn't come on duty. Working in women's prisons would indeed be much easier if pregnant women didn't get sent to prison, but there's not much you can do about it when it's your job to keep in custody those committed by the courts.

heavily pregnant women shouldn't even be in prison

Right? How is this even a thing.

If anyone wants to do something about this, there is a wonderful organisation called Birth Companions who provide doula support to women who give birth while they are in prison. I heard one of their speakers once and she was truly moving and thought provoking.

They are a small organisation and would really value your donations or support.

www.birthcompanions.org.uk/

heavily pregnant women shouldn't even be in prison
*
Right? How is this even a thing.*

In my experience, Maniak, courts were very reluctant to send pregnant women to prison unless they really had no other option. Even heavily pregnant women can be violent and a danger to others. I've known pregnant prisoners threaten to kick a pregnant officer in the stomach - not because they had a personal grudge against that officer but because she was so clearly seen as the weakest link.

Sadly, even pregnant women can still be vile human beings.

Their babies, however, are innocent and vulnerable and as AssangesCat pointed out, prison staff tend to do their utmost to help.

@singinglily it seems unfair to leave it to individual workers to have to compensate for a bad system tho?

There are secure units for ppl with mental illness who are a danger to others but need treatment, so why couldn't there be something similar for pregnant prisoners? Is it just funding or are there other reasons?

Again, Maniak, and speaking from my experience only (20 years in women's prisons), separate accommodation was set aside for pregnant prisoners and for mothers and babies in prison. There was also a separate and different daily routine, constructed around the health and wellbeing needs of pregnant women and of new mothers and their babies. Staff on those units, supported by prison midwives, were carefully chosen.

The only time a pregnant prisoner was not accommodated with other pregnant women was if she posed a genuine risk of violence towards others, including the possibility of violence or abuse of others prisoners' babies (yes, some pregnant prisoners were in that category too, including the occasional risk of sexual abuse of infants. The women's prison system deals with those who offend right across the full spectrum of wrongs).

In every case, however, careful and thorough risk assessments were key and if a decision had to be made to the contrary, it was only made after taking a wide range of views and facts into account (including the woman's own view) and after careful consideration. Sometimes a rapid assessment had to be made, such as the time that a mother in prison decided to fracture her baby's skull in a fit of temper. In that case, the prison immediately took the baby to hospital for treatment and, with the help of social services, persuaded the prisoner's parents to attend the hospital and take over full time care for him.

That was in the public sector.

Bronzefield is in the private sector and it is run by Sodexho. I do not know anything about how private prisons are managed.

However, to answer your point more fully, women form a very small percentage of the overall prison population. Pregnant women and new mothers form an even smaller percentage. There is provision for them but it is limited, just as the numbers who qualify are limited. It could be better. Women in prison are still an afterthought and often staff in public sector women's prisons have had to shout loudly to make the case for more appropriate care and conditions.

Well yes it could be better. This situation involves a dead baby and a number of women have died at that prison over the years.

Quite, Fraggling, which is why I refer you to one of my previous posts.

I also feel quite strongly that if the State deprives someone of their liberty - and there are very good reasons why loss of liberty might be the only appropriate sanction in certain cases - then the State should be responsible for their custody and care. There is an awful lot of human misery in prisons (offenders can also be, and often are, victims) and private profit made on human misery is abhorrent in my view.

Again, prison healthcare is not provided by the prison. It is contracted out to an independent provider or NHS trust.
Maternity services are always provided by local NHS Trust and not the prison.
The prison healthcare would have responsibilities for the overall health of the mother to be but specific pregnancy related care is provided by local maternity services. Most pregnant prisoners give birth in hospital.

Investigation would be carried out by the prison healthcare provider and the maternity services in respect of the infant. The prison will investigate the management of the women and whether she sought assistance which was denied etc. They don’t have the responsibility or skill to investigate perinatal death.
It is likely to be referred to the maternity section of the HSIB for independent investigation.
Depending on the gestation of the infant and whether it was a live or viable birth then it may go before a coroner.

Thiswas 3 years ago.
Shouldn't have happened though.

What was three years ago? The link in the OP is from this week.

This is current news.

The relevant NHS body is the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

Central and Northwest are the mental health provider only.
Sodexo provides physical healthcare.
Maternity would go to either Ashford and St Peters or Frimley.

Sorry got confused I thought it said 2016, but it was referring to incidents since 2016.

The facilities sound horrific but don’t agree that this means women should not have to go to prison. The prisons need to be improved massively. I don’t think it is the place for heavily pregnant women but there are loads of examples of people getting deliberately pretrial in order to avoid it or get a lighter sentence. For those who say this doesn’t happen or why well they do. And many aren’t nice people so don’t expect social norms. On the other hand you can’t justify prison for babies. It’s not their fault. But should we advocate separating then? Prison should be a last resort though and should only be for the most serious offenders. But some will cotton on to this and deliberately take advantage

"What can we usefully do to kick up a stink about this?" asks BarbaraStrozzi -

I am not sure - but as a former probation officer who has tried to kick up a stink about shortcomings in the English and Welsh Criminal Justice System - since the 1970s - this is one of the worse single incidents of policies gone wrong that I can recall.

I have been busy on Twitter - and searching for updated information on the internet - which is how I found this thread.

I suggest the first thing is not to let other stories obscure this one - it is already happening.

On Twitter I wrote: -

"I followed yesterday's worthy urgent questions - all were meritous but ultimately out of the control of #HMUKParliament - whereas preventing the death without medical intervention in an #English #prison of a child ever again FORTHWITH is entirely achievable - get on with it"

I see this firstly as a failure of OUR parliament because parliament makes the laws and votes the money to ensure they are carried out as intended - when the laws are not carried out properly they can direct the Ministers put things right or change the law.

Sadly too few of us seem really bothered about what happens in prison - but dear reader please do what you can to keep the issue active and alive especially with memebers of parliament.

I am tagging some Tweets with

"NEWBORN BABY DIES IN ENGLISH PRISON WITHOUT RECEIVING MEDICAL ATTENTION"

twitter.com/Andrew_S_Hatton/status/1181470641347796992?s=20

I will post it again:

www.birthcompanions.org.uk/

This is the organisation providing expert support, advocacy and campaigning on the issue of women giving birth and caring for their babies in prison.

If you are concerned, horrified or disturbed - please throw your weight behind what they are doing.

If you're going to lock up pregnant women and deprive them of ability look after themselves you should damn well have the capacity to look after them properly. How a baby can be born in early hours and nobody noticed until morning (8am ambulance call I think?) is unconscionable.

I have some issues with the rate of imprisonment and type of crime anyway. By and large women commit crimes relating to property or money. Theft. Not directly causing physical harm. The TV licence prosecution stats make my blood boil.

Why is it not possible to have a secure pregnancy unit, similar to the secure hospitals for mentally ill prisoners? Surely that would be feasible for the final month of pregnancy at the very least.

I'm just horrified that this could happen in the UK. I've read stories of it happening in private US prisons and naively believed we had greater respect for prisoners and babies. What can we do?

I just saw this on BBC News:
HMP Bronzefield baby death 'subject of 10 investigations’
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49977464

Ms Frazer responded by outlining the investigations and added that she had spoken to the prison governor who had introduced hourly checks through the night for all pregnant women.

Excuse my scepticism