Corrections scrutinized for treatment of new mom
Judge temporarily allows inmate to breast-feed infant
A state District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order late Friday afternoon that requires the New Mexico Corrections Department to allow an inmate to breast-feed her newborn daughter during weekend visitation hours at a prison in Grants.
Judge Raymond Ortiz, in the 1st District Court in Santa Fe, also ordered the Corrections Department to let the new mother use an electric pump so she can supply breast milk for her 3-week-old baby when they are apart, another practice the agency has prohibited.
The baby girl, Isabella Hidalgo, was born addicted to methadone, a drug that had been used to treat her mother’s opioid use disorder, according to a complaint filed by the inmate, 33-yearold Monique Hidalgo of Albuquerque, who was convicted on drug charges. An affidavit from the woman’s doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital says the infant was in need of the proven physical and psychological benefits of breast-feeding. But the Corrections Department has refused to allow it,
even during regular visits when the mother is permitted to hold Isabella.
Ortiz wrote in the temporary restraining order, which will remain in effect until a hearing to determine whether Monique Hidalgo will be allowed to continue breast-feeding Isabella, that the mother would “suffer irreparable harm if this relief is not granted.”
Hidalgo also is seeking compensation for damages from the Corrections Department, saying in her complaint that officers shackled her ankles while she was in the hospital recovering from childbirth, and she tripped and fell with Isabella in her arms. The baby had to spend the night in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, the complaint says.
Hidalgo’s doctor, Lawrence Leeman, co-director of UNM Hospital’s Mother Baby Unit, wrote in his affidavit that he told prison guards the shackles were unsafe for the new mother, who was still recovering from birth and suffering from swelling in her legs and ankles, and for the baby “in her arms and in her care.”
But the guards did not remove the shackles. Four days later, Hidalgo fell.
Corrections Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said in an email Friday that all inmates who receive care at a medical facility outside a state prison are restrained “as a security measure and for their own safety and for the safety of others, including the medical staff.”
The department will fight the judge’s temporary order on breast-feeding, Mahesh said in a statement, because Hidalgo recently tested positive for Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction but restricted in prisons. The department “will be using the legal means available” to overturn the order, Mahesh said, “because it appears the court was not told this inmate tested positive for a controlled substance within the last two days.”
“We don’t know how she obtained the drug, and that’s part of our ongoing investigation,” he said.
The woman’s attorney, Amber Fayerberg, disputed the allegation Friday, saying the drug test is unconfirmed and that Hidalgo had been treated with Suboxone while she was in the hospital, which could explain why she may have tested positive for the substance a few days after her release.
Mahesh said in the email that the department has allowed Hidalgo to pump milk using a manual breast pump since she returned from the hospital June 8, and is making arrangements to provide the frozen milk to the baby through a pediatrician.
Fayerberg said the department’s treatment of Hidalgo following Isabella’s birth and its refusal to allow her to breast-feed the baby girl during visits, or even possess an electric breast pump, indicate the state agency has given up on both mother and child.
“It seems clear to me that everyone’s interests are in promoting the bond between a newborn infant and his or her mother, whether she is in prison or not,” Fayerberg said. “It’s in the state’s interest, in the mother’s interest and in the baby’s interest to do whatever we can as a community to promote that bond. And it seems to be the Department of Corrections has already given up on this family. They’ve given up on this baby, and they’ve given up on this mother.”
As part of her complaint, Hidalgo is accusing the department of gender discrimination, saying she was unfairly penalized for missing two weeks of a drug treatment program while she was hospitalized for her daughter’s birth. Upon her return to prison, she was required to restart the nine-month Residential Drug and Alcohol Program, lengthening her sentence.
“Defendant’s decision to single Ms. Hidalgo out for unfavorable treatment because of medical conditions associated with being a woman is unconstitutional and prohibited by our state’s Equal Rights Amendment,” the complaint says.
Hidalgo is being held in the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Grants. According to online court records, she pleaded guilty in 2012 to charges of conspiracy to traffic heroin and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. She was sentenced to five years of probation, but she violated the terms of her probation numerous times and then absconded from probation for nearly two years. She was captured last fall.
Hidalgo is now scheduled to be released from prison March 8, 2018. But according to her complaint, she could have been released as early as November 2017 if she had been allowed to resume her participation in the drug treatment program after Isabella’s birth.
While she was hospitalized, the complaint says, Hidalgo kept up with the program’s requirements, including keeping a journal. The efforts proved fruitless.
Judge Ortiz’s order Friday marks a partial victory for the inmate, but it’s unclear how long she will be allowed to breast-feed her daughter.
The Corrections Department’s general counsel, Jim Brewster said in an email to her attorney, Fayerberg, that a new lactation policy, which is still in development, “will not include inmates breastfeeding their infants in person.”
New Mexico lawmakers passed two bills in this year’s session that would have directed state prisons to create an infant and toddler feeding policy for inmates, but Gov. Susana Martinez did not sign them into law. Neither bill would have directed the Corrections Department to allow lactating mothers to breast-feed infants, but both called for a policy allowing a woman to express and store breast milk and providing for delivery of the milk to the child.
Brewster said the bills passed by lawmakers did not contemplate “live breastfeeding.”
Lissa Knudsen, chairwoman of the New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force, disagreed Friday, saying the bills would have allowed individual detention centers to decide whether to permit women to breast-feed infants during visits.
“In any event,” Brewster wrote to Fayerberg, “Ms. Hidalgo should have ample time to use the manual breast pump, and many woman are able to effectively use them. Also, the family has the ability to use formula or other appropriate supplementation if needed.”
Brewster said he was not aware of any state with a policy allowing women to breast-feed infants in prison.
Fayerberg, in a letter to him, named several correctional facilities that allow breast-feeding, including the jails in Santa Fe County and Los Angeles County. A maximum security facility in Bedford, N.Y., allows mothers to keep their infants with them for up to 18 months in an on-site nursery, she said.
These programs, Fayerberg said, recognize the benefits of breast-feeding for both incarcerated mothers and babies born with drug addictions — such as easing postpartum depression and the symptoms of opioid withdrawal syndrome, and reducing the risks of future child abuse.
“Because the benefits of live breastfeeding cannot be overstated,” she wrote, “… I imagine that the presence of a correctional officer would assuage any security concerns raised by a mother holding her child to her breast to feed during a visitation.”
Contact Phaedra Haywood at 505-9863068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com. Follow her on Twitter @phaedraann.
Judge Raymond Ortiz’s order Friday marks a partial victory for the inmate.