Suit: Pregnant inmates abused at Santa Rita
Six women, formerly or currently incarcerated at Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail, have charged in a legal complaint filed Thursday morning that pregnant women are abused and discriminated against in the Dublin jail.
The federal complaint was filed against the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office. It asks for a temporary restraining order and motion for a preliminary injunction.
The alleged abuses detailed in the complaint are extreme. In their declarations, women describe feeling coerced by guards to have abortions rather than carrying their pregnancies to term. They said they were given inadequate clothing and food. One woman said she was forced to give birth while in solitary confinement, with no medical assistance.
Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the sheriff ’s office, said the agency had not been served with the lawsuit so he could not reply to specific allegations.
Kelly said that the alleged abuses would all be in violation of the agency’s policies, and that he was unaware of any formal complaints filed by female inmates for abuses by the department.
Kelly confirmed that a woman did give birth in solitary confinement after returning from the hospital, but said that she was immediately given medical care and that there were no lasting medical effects.
Christina Zepeda, one of the plaintiffs, was about three and a half months pregnant when she was arrested in San Leandro last August for a probation violation. She told the sheriff ’s deputies she was pregnant, she says, and requested to be handcuffed in the front. Though this is policy, deputies allegedly ignored her and handcuffed her in the back.
“Upon arriving at Santa Rita, I told them I was not feeling well,” Zepeda said in her declaration. “They placed me in a holding cell that was filthy. The walls had human secretions on the walls, there was decaying food in my cell.”
Four days after her arrest, she suffered a miscarriage. Zepeda, who was released after 90 days, said she believes the jail is at least partially responsible, since she had no prior issues with her pregnancy.
By state law, jails and prisons are required to provide prenatal and postpartum care.
The women are represented by attorneys Yolanda Huang and Dennis Cunningham. Huang said that the jail is failing to meet basic standards of this law for pregnant women.
“They’re given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich twice a day, and milk, then maybe some protein, like beans or an unadulterated hamburger and a potato,” Huang said. “No fruits or vegetables. You can’t have a healthy pregnancy like that.”
The women in jail reached out to Huang in early December with descriptions of mistreatment after reading about another complaint she’d filed against Santa Rita Jail. Huang met with the women several times, but is barred from meeting with three who are incarcerated, the lawsuit alleges.
“What we’re asking for is fairly simple,” Huang said. “We want them to stop abusing these women, we want a qualified OB/GYN to be able to go in there and design a plan of care and we want to be able to see our clients.”
Huang said that they are seeking to be heard by a judge before Monday, because she views this as an emergency.
“A fetus is so delicate,” Huang said. “Certain times are essential and we need this to stop immediately.”