NM needs breast-feeding policy for its state prisons

Given the number of female inmates being held in New Mexico prisons — 753 or 10.4 percent of the state’s total prison population — and the increase in breast-feeding lawsuits in the past decade, it’s surprising the New Mexico Department of Corrections doesn’t have a formal policy on the issue.

It needs one.

The issue came up in a lawsuit by inmate Monique Hidalgo, who was not allowed to breast-feed during family visits at the state Women’s Correctional Facility in Grants. Hidalgo, who has been in the Grants prison since September 2016 after multiple probation violations stemming from a drug case, gave birth to a girl May 22 at University of New Mexico Hospital. Because Hidalgo was being treated in prison for drug addiction with the opioid methadone, her daughter was born with a drug addiction. According to the lawsuit, doctors recommended that Hidalgo breastfeed her daughter to help the infant’s recovery from the addiction.

When Hidalgo returned to prison on June 8, she was not allowed to breast-feed the infant, nor was she given access to an electronic breast pump — though she did have access to a manual pump. Prison officials would then store the breast milk until relatives could pick it up for the baby’s use.

Hidalgo’s attorney, Amber Fayerberg, obtained a restraining order from the court that allows Hidalgo to breast-feed her daughter during visitation and access to an electronic breast pump to use in the infirmary between visits. S.U. Mahesh, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department does not have an official lactation policy. He said other inmates have not been allowed to breast-feed and, until Hidalgo, were prohibited from pumping milk. One reason was concern over milk safety.

There’s ample scientific evidence that breast-feeding is generally beneficial to infants, including those who, through no fault of their own, are born with a drug addiction. And there is precedent in law that says employers must accommodate the needs of nursing mothers, such as providing private areas where they can feed their babies or pump milk. But complications arise when the nursing mother is in prison.

For example, Hidalgo wants to breast-feed her daughter during family visits. But other families are in the same room at the same time, which raises concerns about privacy and the comfort level of other visitors.

And while mothers’ milk can be extracted by both manual and electronic pumps, to what level are tax-supported prisons expected to go to “accommodate” the nursing inmate who wound up addicted, pregnant and in prison?

This problem isn’t going away. A 2016 report from the Center for Worklife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law found an 800 percent increase in breast-feeding-related discrimination lawsuits in the past decade. And a federal court determined in 2014 that breast-feeding is a medical condition related to pregnancy, which means employers are therefore required to accommodate it under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

The outcome of Hidalgo’s lawsuit may provide the Corrections Department with some guidelines that can assist in developing a policy on breast-feeding behind bars. Regardless, the department needs to develop one that is legally defensible and balances the needs of the inmates, their infants, prison security and taxpayer dollars.