Former prisoner sues province for taking her baby when she was in jail

Rights of mother, newborn violated when program for incarcerated moms cancelled, suit claims

A B. C. woman who was pregnant when she began serving a jail sentence is suing the provincial government for taking away her newborn. It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Canada concerning the rights of jailed mothers to keep their babies with them.

Patricia Block’s legal action claims that the minister of public safety and solicitor- general violated her and her daughter’s constitutional rights because the government cancelled its mother- baby program in April 2008. It allowed mothers to keep their babies while incarcerated at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, a provincial corrections facility in Maple Ridge.

The program was similar to the federal mother- child program, which is offered at the Fraser Valley Institution in Abbotsford.

After the provincial program was cancelled, Block, of Penticton, pleaded guilty to possessing drugs for trafficking.

At the time, she was 4 ½ months pregnant and requested a two- year sentence so she could keep her baby under the federal program. But she received a short sentence and was not accepted in the federal program, so her daughter, Amber, born March 17, 2009, was removed from Block’s care. After her release in July 2009, the baby was returned by the ministry of children and family development.

The defendants —the solicitor-general, the attorney- general and Lisa Anderson, the warden of Alouette — recently filed an application to have the legal action dismissed, arguing that Block lacked standing to advance her claims. In a ruling this week, B. C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed the defendants’ application and allowed Block public interest standing.

That means the case now will be decided on its merits.

Ross noted in her judgment, released Friday, that 12 women gave birth while jailed in the provincial corrections system between February 2008 and Dec. 16, 2011. As of Nov. 1 last year, 93 women were in provincial corrections facilities.

The judgment stated that after Block was released from jail, she married the baby’s father, took a culinary program, found a job and regained custody of another daughter, while her oldest daughter is attending university.

When asked if it planned to appeal, the ministry said Friday: “Government will be taking the time necessary to review the ruling before deciding our next steps.”