Current Events > Prison guards but not Mom given counseling after Mom gave birth alone, baby died

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/25/prison-guards-but-not-mother-get-counselling-after-baby-dies-in-cell

A vulnerable 18-year-old whose baby died after her calls for help were ignored as she gave birth alone in a prison cell was not provided with bereavement support but the prison guards who failed to get her medical assistance were offered counselling, the Observer can reveal.
The details were buried in a devastating report from a prison watchdog published last week that described how the teenager was found in bed cradling her dead baby more than 12 hours after pressing her cell bell and telling staff at the privately run HMP Bronzefield that she needed an ambulance.
It has also emerged since the reports publication that those who ignored her calls for assistance remain working at the prison in Ashford, Surrey.
The young woman, in prison for the first time, was on remand facing a charge of robbery. She went into labour, and records show that on the evening of 26 September 2019 she called for help three times but none came.
By 11pm she was in constant pain and unable to reach her cell bell. After passing out, she came round to find her baby girl was there but not breathing. She bit through the umbilical cord and tried to wipe the blood from her cell before climbing into bed.
The prisons and probation ombudsman Sue McAllister listed a catalogue of failures and found maternity services at Bronzefield were outdated and inadequate.
Despite overnight checks by guards, the babys death was discovered only after two prisoners raised the alarm. A nurse was called but failed to resuscitate the infant. Staff were later offered support from external counsellors.
But, shockingly, the PPO report found: Police and coroner involvement immediately after Baby As death, and a lack of understanding by the prison of the role of the local child death review team, meant Ms A did not receive the routine bereavement and practical support that would normally be provided.
McAllister said Ms A was regarded as having a bad attitude rather than a vulnerable 18-year-old who refused care because she was frightened her baby would be taken away.
She even told a nurse she would kill herself if her baby was taken into care but the prison failed to step up monitoring.
Deborah Coles, the executive director of the charity Inquest, said: Their view of her as a difficult woman informed her treatment both during the pregnancy and the subsequent ignoring of cell bells. The further complete contempt of her case in not providing bereavement counselling is indicative of a wider culture at Bronzefield, which is supposed to be a trauma-informed prison.
Ms A had entered the prison on 14 August 2019, with a nurse noting she had asthma, a chest infection and looked pregnant. Seven months earlier she had been assigned looked after child status by Camden social services in London.
Coles said: The key question we need to ask is why she was in prison in the first place she could and should have been kept safely in th

They should go to prison for life, since they denies a life coming into existance.

---

Fuck cops. Guards, highway patrol, police, they all the same. Little bitches who care about no one but themselves.

---

I just can't understand how heads didn't immediately roll after this. Makes no sense

---

VipaGTS posted...

Fuck cops. Guards, highway patrol, police, they all the same. Little bitches who care about no one but themselves.

F*** all figures of authority

---

This is pretty fucked up

VipaGTS posted...

Fuck cops. Guards, highway patrol, police, they all the same. Little bitches who care about no one but themselves.

welcome to a capitalistic country like America where thats the case for almost everyone

---

People should just be allowed to commit crimes without punishment

This is all over the news here in the UK.

Just kidding! None of the big places are reporting on it. BBC and Sky News are like "what story?".

---

Im busy getting ready for work so I dont hace time to read all that. So I'll say id need to know what their policies are and how the prison is set up. I work in a direct observation facility which means inmates are to be under direct observation at all times. And even then shit gets missed cause you cant have eyes everywhere all the time. Ive been accused of negligence but the cameras saved my ass cause it saw I was doing everything by policy. (Nobody has died on my watch but a dude did get his ass whipped but the whole fight lasted like 5 seconds)

So at the end of the day if they where negligent fuck them. If they where doing their jobs up to how policy is written they should have some safe guards.

I'll also throw out prisons have some shitty hiring standards so I dont have a hard time believing they fucked up. We stay so short staffed all they care about is a warm body that doesn't have a recent criminal record

---