Inmate gives birth without guards ‘even noticing’

A JAILED women went into labour and gave birth, alone, in a Texas jail cell. According to those on duty, no correctional officer noticed until after she had delivered the child.

The woman was in a Fort Worth jail cell on May 17, according to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s officers. The woman “did not immediately disclose the birth, but the baby was soon discovered by a corrections officer.”

Both the mum and baby were take to a hospital. There was no immediate information to provide regarding the health of either of them.

The jail staff knew of the pregnancy and had been checking her regularly, according to Lt Jennifer Gabbert, Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman. Exact information about how frequent those checks were and if the jail staff knew of her due date are not known at this time.

Though there is an internal affairs department investigation, there is currently no indication of wrongdoing by jail staff. The mother has been in jail without bond since January on charges of assaulting a family member, injuring a child, elderly or disabled person.

Currently this jail is fighting an outbreak of the Coronavirus amongst its inmates and staff. Police have tried not to arrest those accused of minor crimes to keep people out of jail, and hopefully, decrease the spread of Covid-19.

The child was born a few days before state inspectors told Tarrant County Jail staff that minimum standards for checking on some of the inmates was not being met. The jail received a noncompliance notice on May 21st after inspectors found that the staff failed to check on an inmate in a timely way, and as a result, a suicide attempt was successful and the inmate died.

“We take this very seriously and the internal investigation is ongoing,” she said. The jail submitted a plan to correct the issue and was re-certified six days later.