2. Nursery
Prison nurseries have been defined as
programs that “allow a mother to
parent her infant from birth till the
age of 3 years old varying in location
to live within a special housing unit at
the prison.”
Nursery
◾ pregnant at the time she is delivered into the custody of the
Department of Correction
◾ Earliest possible release date is not more than eighteen months after
the projected delivery date
◾ Has never been convicted of a violent crime or any type of child
abuse or child endangerment determined by the pediatrician
3. Prison Nursery
The child is often vulnerable to disease due to lack of cleanliness,
malnutrition for minimal lack of food in some states only a portion to share between mot
and possible abuse by other prisoners or prison guards.
Prison Diseases
4. Arisela Duarte v. New York
Inmate Duarte is Awaiting trial for Attempted
Murder and Assault. She appealed her case
after being rejected for admission into the
nursery program. Duarte appealed her
admission case and the Supreme Court
granted her petition and ordered the City to
admit her to the Nursery Program, saying,
"The sole criterion set forth in [section
611(2)] for the return of a newborn to its
inmate mother ... and its remaining in the
care of its mother in prison is the welfare of
the child.... The only basis for denial of an
inmate's request to care for her child in
prison ... is a finding by the chief medical
officer of the correctional institution that the
mother is physically unfit to care for her
Duarte's pending charges and criminal
history "show that she poses a threat
to the safety and security
of her unborn child as well as to the
other mothers and their babies in the
Past Criminal History:
• Second degree gang assault with intent to cause
serious physical injury,
• Two charges of gang assault in the first and second
degrees,
• First degree assault with a weapon,
• Two second degree assault charges
• Weapons possession
• Graffiti
5. If Pregnant Woman Are Mistreated…How will they treat infants?
near her due-date, complained of leaking amniotic fluid; seeking medical attent
of neglect from the prison staff, she finally received attention and received an u
her that all the amniotic fluid is gone and that her unborn baby’s skull collapsed.
her to the hospital, putting her at risk for septic shock the longer the fetus rema
A prison nursery was discontinued in BC
for unknown reasons to the public
but an officer mentioned this:
“Our staff are not trained to supervise infants and they’re not
in infant first aid or anything..
If something went wrong we didn’t respond appropriate
we just couldn’t risk putting an infant in that situatio
