Woman gives birth in jail cell, alone

[ccharles000]

Blood covered Terra Keil's hands, and her cries echoed against the jail cell walls.

But the Dubuque County Jail inmate said she took little notice of her own tears; she was focused on the howls coming from the infant squirming in her arms.

Early Tuesday morning, the 19-year-old Dubuque woman gave birth behind bars.

Keil claims guards ignored her pleas for help and left her to deliver her son alone. Jail officials say the mother never showed signs she was in labor.

"I guess it's a he said-she said situation," Keil said. "I know it's their word against mine, but how does somebody have a baby in jail without anybody noticing?"

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=243341

[Fumesucker]

1. Maybe she's a Scientologist?

To be serous though, anyone who thinks our "justice" system is anything other than a barbaric disgrace needs to spend a year or two caught up in it.

[Riley18]

2. That's what you call homegrown torture. It's a disgrace.

[cali]

5. no, it's criminal neglect.

we need to stop misusing and overusing certain terms.

[Maru Kitteh]

36. This one fits. What they did was torture.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

22. Torture?

well, let's see... most of us got here by being born...

I've had two babies and although it is horribly painful I did not consider it torture.

What the jailers did was neglect and endangerment of both the mother and baby... but not torture.

[Maru Kitteh]

35. YES, torture. Did you give birth in a steel cage while people who control every aspect

of your life denied you and your baby even simple acknowledgment? And only 19 years old to boot.

Women give birth every day but women die giving birth every day too. Can you begin to put yourself in her shoes and think of how terrified she must have been? And this was done to her on purpose by people who were quite willing apparently to let her and/or her infant die on a prison floor.

Yes. Torture.

[4_TN_TITANS]

39. I'd consider it torture...especially if it was her first.

If not for an epidural, my wife would have been in excruciating pain for days at the rate she dialated with our first.

[Vinca]

3. The lawyers are lining up around the block.

[polmaven]

4. "never showed signs that she was in labor"....

Um....HUH???? She was screaming for help, there was blood pouring out of her, but she never showed signs that she was in labor? What do you think those guards thought that was when the baby's head crowned? Just a very large bowel movement?

Good God, how do these people GET these jobs in the first place?

[ccharles000]

7. I agree

[skooooo]

6. I'd be more upset...

....if I thought this was the worst thing that's happened in American jails in the last month.

[Lorien]

10. Just because it may not be the "worst" doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve

attention and action. People need to lose their jobs over this, and the for profit prison system needs to be held accountable.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. county jails are not "for profit prisons" n/t

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Ah, but privatized county jails exist and are basically run the same as the privatized prisons.

They take in inmates from other counties for profit and their pay scale usually is lower than that of traditional county facilities.

This is becoming an increasingly common, albeit controversial, practice across the country.

However, in this case I don't believe the county jail was a privatized business, but I could be mistaken.

[skooooo]

32. Of course..

...I was just making a statement on the amount of abuse that we don't even know about.

[Odin2005]

8. WTF?

:grr:

[ccharles000]

9. kick

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. My Grandmother gave birth to my Mom by herself in a hospital exam room.

The doctor was called away and never came back. When my Grandma told me that, I told her (with tears in my eyes) that she was my hero.

This happened in Hanford, CA, in the late forties.

[Number23]

29. "I told her (with tears in my eyes) that she was my hero."

Beautiful.

[knitter4democracy]

14. He-said, she-said situation? Really?

It sounds to me like it's pretty clear: the guards heard screaming but did nothing about it, even though they knew a pregnant woman was in that cell. That's not a he-said, she-said situation (though they might have the "he" part right--male guards in a women's jail are still too common). That's criminal neglect of a mother and baby in their care.

[Toucano]

18. And beyond that, the jailers are REQUIRED to be aware of her condition.

People in their custody are their responsibility. The aren't permitted to wait for notification. They have to pay attention.

[knitter4democracy]

31. Exactly. It's their job to monitor her for safety.

They're damn lucky she didn't die and the baby didn't die.

Is that place privatized?

[LeftHandPath]

15. I hope that baby...

owns half the town when this is all over.

I hope she/he owns the mayor's house, the sheriff's house, and all the homes of the jailers who were on duty while this atrocity occurred.

Welcome to the Fascist States of America kid.

[CreekDog]

16. No signs of labor? I guess they think the stork brought that baby

solution: fire the appropriate person

better solution: if criminal charges are warranted, pursue them. :rant:

[EFerrari]

17. How could a 19 yr old HIDE being in labor?

Unbelievable.

[Toucano]

20. "We thought babies came from the cabbage patch 'round yonder!"

Whoda thunk it came outta thar!

[reggie the dog]

25. wrong accent for Iowa

but damn funny

[Toucano]

26. Touché. I took liberties to enhance the effect.

:)

Thanks.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

19. They didn't

even bother to put down some newspapers in a box for her?

[reggie the dog]

23. no, she got busted for drugs before she got pregnant

hence she is lower than a cats shit.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

24. Oh... well then

it makes perfect sense. :crazy:

[reggie the dog]

21. DRUG CHARGES, FUCKING DRUG CHARGES

thank you war on drugs, she stopped calling her parole officer FOR DRUG CHARGES, and got a warrant for her arrest. "On Monday evening, Keil said, she was walking home from a friend's house when a patrol car pulled near. Moments later, she was under arrest for violating parole conditions for previous drug charges. She said a warrant was issued after she stopped meeting with her parole officer"

DRUG CHARGES! So let's see here. Using some drugs is fine for kids and all (caffine, sugar). Other drugs are fine for her even pregnant (tobacco). Alcohol is fine and legal for all pregnant mothers 21 and over (yes you can drink yourself blind every day you are pregnant LEGALLY). Drugs like cannabis, heroin, cocaine, meth are so terrible that you go to jail for them. Once in jail THEY MAKE YOU GIVE BIRTH TO YOUR KIDS WITH NO HELP BECAUSE YOU ARE A DEGENERATE DRUG USER. Drug users are today what "Jews" were in WWII, what "niggers and coons" were from slaver up to oh when? modern times??? the 1990's???? at any rate she is deemed less than human BECAUSE OF FUCKING DRUGS! It is like the shithead young cop all of 22 who busted me in Virginia for having 44 grams of weed, held a gun to my head and said he ought to pull the trigger to do the world a favor because people like me were ruining HIS country (He can have the USA now, I left and became French, but I was still American when he said "his" country implying that the USA was not mine because I use cannabis) and then LIT A GOD DAMNED CIGGIE UP, A MARLBORO, and made me breath in his smoke as I was being driven to jail. His lousy tobacco is worse for his health than my grass but hey, us drug users are lower than shit. Like this woman. The guards consider her lower than shit, and consider her kid lower than shit because she GOT CAUGHT in possession of drugs. We know that the current president has used cocaine and cannabis. I will openly admit to using cannabis daily and MDMA once or twice a year, and that I have done opium, cocaine, PCP, LSD, mushrooms and speed we thought was ecstacy. Why am I less than human? Why is this girl less than human? Is Obama less than human because he did drugs? What about George Bush? or Bill Clinton? or George Clinton for that matter? All of this because DRUGS!!!!!!!!! are illegal. Quel monde de merde!

[ccharles000]

37. ...

:thumbsup:

[TroglodyteScholar]

27. At least it looks like the baby in Dubuque survived...

This happened in Racine, WI, in April with a much sadder outcome... http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2009/04/01/local_news/doc49d3e01fb70c3703831295.txt

[Ilsa]

30. 18 weeks early. Would absolutely have to have medical intervention

in breathe, and would have been intubated. Even then, the baby might not have survived. What should have happened was the mother should have been taken in to the hospital have her labor arrested (no pun intended), if possible. If they could have stopped her labor, the baby might have been able to survive if born in a hospital several weeks later.

[Number23]

28. Good Lord. How awful.

[lostnfound]

33. Actually, it was probably BETTER THIS WAY! At least no SHACKLES!

The teenager daughter -- something like 18 at the time -- of someone I know gave birth while in prison (for shoplifting or drug possession, I forget which).
This was the girl's first birth, and apparently they did not call her mother, kept the teen handcuffed and shackled to the bed the entire time, and whisked the baby away basically immediately.

I do not know why this pathetic society has evolved to this inhuman state, but it makes me really angry that the lowlife in charge of the prison systems can't find an ounce of compassion or respect for humanity in their hearts at times like these.

[Cairycat]

34. A woman could bleed out in the time they took to check on her

if there were a problem with the placenta and/or uterus. Even a lesser bleeding problem could have severe repercussions is a short time. The county is damn lucky nothing untoward happened.

[Smith_3]

38. Someone needs to be punished for this. I would suggest something between three and six years.