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Correctional officer becomes caregiver for inmate's newborn baby after she couldn't find anyone

It cost her a job she loved, but she has no regrets.

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Correctional officer cares for inmate's baby until her release.

Having a baby can be stressful under normal circumstances, but having to prepare for a baby while incarcerated has to feel nearly impossible. For an inmate in Louisiana who was pregnant and in prison for a minor crime with a short sentence, options were nonexistent.

Katie Bourgeois, who is currently serving time at Louisiana Transitional Center for Women in Tallulah, Louisiana, found herself desperate for help as her due date quickly approached in May. She is due to be released in July.

The new mom didn't have any family to take her new baby, and she worried that if she didn't find a caregiver, the infant would go into foster care. That's when Roberta Bell, a correctional officer at the facility, helped to ease her worries. Bell worked at the facility for over three years and enjoyed her job helping women. But when Bourgeois was trying to find a temporary caregiver for her unborn child, it was a running joke among staff that Bell was going to take the baby—until it wasn't.

Bourgeois approached Bell and pleaded her case for the correctional officer to become the legal caretaker of her baby.

“She was very concerned about Child Protection Services getting the baby and her not knowing where the baby was since she had such a short term to serve,” Bell told WLBT. “She said, ‘I really need somebody to get my baby when I get ready to have it because I don’t have anybody.'”

Before taking on the duties of caretaker, Bell reached out to her superior to make sure she would not be violating any rules, but weeks had passed without an update. According to WLBT, no one had returned her inquiry until a few days before the baby was delivered, and at that point, Bell had already provided the new mom with her contact information for the hospital to transfer the baby to her.

This is what caused her termination, but the correctional officer was undeterred. She fully planned to fulfill her promise to the scared mom and care for her baby until she gets released in July. Kayson Bourgeois was born May 17, and Bell took him back to her home in Mississippi since she is no longer employed.

Approximately 58,000 pregnant people go to jail or prison every year and thousands of babies are born while their mothers are incarcerated, according to Prison Policy Initiative. After giving birth, new parents are typically allowed to spend 24 hours with their newborn in the hospital before the mother returns to prison or jail. The child is then placed with a relative or in foster care. Only 12 states offer prison-based nursery programs, making the likelihood of separation high.

Thankfully for Bourgeois, she had a correctional officer who was willing to take the risk of losing her job to make sure her baby stayed out of the foster care system, and Bell has no regrets. When WLBT asked if she would change anything, she said, "I wouldn’t because this is me. There’s no changing."

“My passion was to open a recovery home for the women that are coming out of prison. I have not been successful in that yet, but I know that I will be. To get them away from the surroundings that they were in that caused them to get in trouble. That’s my passion,” Bell told WLBT.

Maybe someday she'll get to do just that. For now, the 57-year-old's top priority is taking care of baby Kayson and making sure he has everything he needs. If you'd like to donate to help Bell care for Kayson, you can donate to her GoFundMe here.

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5 things you've probably never considered about being pregnant while in prison.

As Americans, we have inherited some pretty huge problems with our criminal justice system.

People of color face incarceration at disproportionate rates compared to white people, and many people go to jail or prison when they should be getting mental health treatment instead.

A lot of these problems remain under the radar because for many Americans, prisons are out of sight and out of mind. Lately, thanks to the hard work of activists, filmmakers like Ava Duvernay, and other advocates, criminal justice reform has been in the spotlight.

But there are still plenty of injustices that take place behind the walls of prisons and jails that we don’t talk about enough.

A prime example? The way most pregnant people are treated when they are incarcerated.

Here are five things you may not know about being pregnant and incarcerated.

1. Thousands of incarcerated women are pregnant, and access to prenatal healthcare in prison is abysmal.

There’s no official, comprehensive data on how many people in prison are going through pregnancy. But what we do know is that there are 210,000 women who are currently incarcerated, and the vast majority of them are of reproductive age. The ACLU estimates that around 12,000 of these women are pregnant.

People in prison, pregnant or not, receive inadequate healthcare, but pregnancy exacerbates the need for quality, holistic healthcare and support — especially for people who are facing high-risk pregnancies. Unfortunately, many incarcerated women lack access to healthcare providers who are trained in obstetrics and gynecology, and one report found that almost half of pregnant inmates don’t get any prenatal care at all.

2. There are huge barriers to getting an abortion while incarcerated.

Your right to have an abortion doesn’t disappear when you go to jail, but for many women in prison, there are huge barriers to ending a pregnancy. Often, healthcare providers in jail and prison don’t inform their patients about their termination options. Many incarcerated women have had to go to court to secure access to abortion, but even more have been forced to continue their pregnancies.

3. Pregnant women who are incarcerated often have to deal with dehumanizing, dangerous practices like shackling.

Historically, pregnant inmates have been subjected to degrading practices like being shackled — even during labor. Although many states have now outlawed this practice, six states have no regulations that protect pregnant and birthing women — and their babies — from harmful physical restraints.

If you’ve ever seen anyone in labor, you know how huge of a problem this is. Laboring women need freedom of movement to work through their contractions, and their healthcare professionals need to be able to step in quickly in emergency situations. It’s a matter of safety, and it’s a matter of dignity.

4. Giving birth while incarcerated can be a nightmare.

Feeling supported, safe, and respected during birth can turn a challenging, scary experience into a positive one. Unfortunately, many women who give birth while incarcerated are denied even the most basic accommodations and support. Incarcerated women often aren’t given the opportunity to make decisions about their birth plans. Recently, one Texas woman went into labor prematurely while she was in a jail cell — and guards refused to assist her until her baby was born. These scenarios are unacceptable.

5. Mothers are separated from their newborns almost immediately.

Most prisons only allow mothers to stay with their newborns for 24 hours before the child is removed to be placed with relatives or in foster care. These abrupt separations can cause serious health issues for the baby, and unsurprisingly, can be emotionally devastating for the mom.

The bottom line is that the way we deal with pregnant and laboring mothers in prison is simply not working.

It’s inhumane, unhealthy, and traumatic.

The good news is that there are people who are fighting hard to make real, tangible improvements for incarcerated moms.

One program in Indiana has established a nursery so incarcerated moms can take care of their newborns, bond with them, and avoid the trauma of separation. Studies have found that the kids in these types of programs face fewer mental health problems, and the moms are less likely to return to prison.

Reproductive justice organizations like SisterSong are fighting hard to make sure that shackling pregnant inmates is a horrifying practice that we leave in the past.

The only women’s prison in Minnesota has partnered with a nonprofit that provides incarcerated pregnant people with doulas for their pregnancy and birth. The program has significantly reduced C-section rates among women who participate in the program.

And Black Lives Matter has partnered with organizations across the country for National Black Mamas Bailout Day, which raises money to bail black women out of jail for Mother’s Day. About 200 moms have been bailed out thanks to their efforts.

The root of the problem — the discriminatory, dehumanizing practices that make up our prison system — still exists. But these efforts show that we can make real change if we refuse to accept injustice.

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The money bail industry harms the most vulnerable. John Legend wants to end it now.

Imagine doing something dumb but relatively harmless in your youth.

Maybe stealing a T-shirt or smoking marijuana with a friend.

Instead of a reprimand and a way to make things right, you're thrown into jail at 15 years old to await your trial. Maybe if you're from a lower socioeconomic family in a larger city like New York or Los Angeles — where bail can run $2,000-$5,000 or more — neither you nor any close family members can afford to make bail.

So you're stuck, sitting, waiting, and spending some of the most important years of your life in a space that's historically inhumane and unsafe and a foundation for anger, loneliness, and depression.

This is the reality for thousands of teenagers and and adults across the country, and Grammy-winning musician John Legend wants to stop it.

Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images.

In a compelling video, Legend partnered with Color for Change to demand that the U.S. end the money bail system now.

The Truth About the Money Bail Industry narrated by John Legend

John Legend & Rashad Robinson "End Money Bail Now": fal.cn/MoneyBailOpEdCNNHonored to have partnered with John Legend’s FreeAmerica to expose this country’s corrupt for profit bail industry. Prosecutors build their careers by targeting Black and Brown people, selling off our freedom, and driving up mass incarceration. Enough is enough! If we want to drive mass incarceration and police violence down, we need to step up and make prosecutors answer to us. Share this and donate to #EndMoneyBail: bit.ly/EndMoneyBailNow

Posted by Color Of Change on Monday, May 21, 2018

He discusses how the system is similar to predatory loan systems and disproportionately affects people of color.

"While many white people charged with crimes largely spend their time before their trial free, district attorneys and judges have different rules for black people, for poor people, demanding bail in the first place and setting it far out of reach financially and threatening them with long sentences if they don't take a plea," Legend explains in the video.

A former English major and lifelong proponent of social justice for all, Legend made a compelling case to end the system that corners people of color more than others and often throws off young, promising, and redeemable lives.

He demanded that we hold our governments accountable on changing the decadeslong system.

Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for WGN.

So what exactly is the money bail system?

It's the monetary system that technically prevents suspects from committing any other criminal acts while they await trial and aims to ensure they abide by the judicial process. But the system is largely corrupt — according to a study by the Pretrial Justice Institute, the first commercial bail bond business started in San Francisco in 1898, functioning as a payoff scheme among crime bosses, judges, lawyers and police.

This tradition of the rich and empowered benefitting from the bail system has persisted well into the current day. If you are wealthy or have someone in your life who is, you can post the proposed bail amount and re-enter society regardless of whether you committed the crime or not. However, if you don't have the money, a petty crime can force you to remain in jail for months or even years.    

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

"In America, you're better off being guilty and rich than innocent and poor," Legend says.

Such was the case for Kalief Browder, a teenager who Legend references in his video. Browder was a mere 16 years old when he was put in jail for three years after being accused of stealing a backpack. Unable to make the $3,000 bail, Browder was forced to reside in Rikers Island, one of the most notorious prisons in America. Browder went through traumatic experiences while incarcerated and ultimately committed suicide after he was finally released.

It's a traumatic story that broke the hearts of thousands around the nation, but it's a story that's all too common for our nation's poorest individuals, particularly those of color.  

In the video, Legend explores how the for-profit bail bond industry makes money off freedom and why it's imperative to our morality as a nation that we end it.

"Hundreds of thousands are pulled out of school, pulled out of their jobs, pulled out of church, pulled out of their families and communities, trapped in an oppressive and racist criminal justice by prosecutors, judges, bail bondsmen, and everyone else who profits from it," he notes.

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Color of Change partnered with Legend's Free America campaign — a campaign that aims to end the prison industrial complex — to surface the commercial bail bond's inhumane industry practice of cash bail. And other celebrities are supporting his mission.

New York state gubernatorial candidate and former "Sex in the City" actress Cynthia Nixon made a public declaration of her support to end the problematic system.

Nixon, along with Legend, noted the connections between the money bail system and mass incarceration and how we can dismantle one by dismantling the other.

So, how can the system change?

According to Legend, it starts with everyday citizens like you and me.

"We're going to win," he says. "Our communities are going to win. Our families are going to win. Justice is going to win."

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Many moms stuck in jail are too poor to afford bail. These activists decided to fix that.

Theresa was arrested in April, and without the $5,000 she needed to post bail, she couldn't leave the holding facility in Estrella, Arizona, until after her trial.

Theresa (whose last name is not being published to protect her privacy ahead of her trial) was nine months' pregnant with her third child when she was arrested. Instead of being surrounded by family and friends, she gave birth in jail, and her child was immediately taken by the department of child safety.

Even though Theresa hadn't been convicted of a crime, she was held in jail until May, when her friend came to take her home before Mother's Day. She was speechless.

Photo courtesy Analise Ortiz, ACLU of Arizona, used with permission.

Theresa's friend came up with her bail money with the help of dozens of community groups nationwide that are working to bail women out of jail in time for Mother's Day.

The initiative, in collaboration with Black Mama's Bail Out and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), also aims to raise awareness about America's growing mass incarceration problem — and how to fix it.

Theresa is one of the 1,400 women who give birth while incarcerated annually in the United States. These women have to work through bureaucratic processes to get their babies back.

"She's currently taking the steps she needs to take to get her baby back, but it's definitely going to be a fight," says Nicole Hale, community organizer for Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), one of the grassroots nonprofits working with the cross-country initiative. LUCHA has raised nearly $10,000 to pay the bail of mothers who are in jail.

More than 200,000 women in the U.S. are currently in jail or prison — one of the highest rates in the world — and 80% of those women are mothers.

And while black and Hispanic people make up 32% of the U.S. population, they represent 56% of those who are incarcerated.

Those numbers don't lie: The system disproportionally affects people of color and America's poor.

The Estrella Jail in Maricopa County, Arizona. Photo by Camaron Stevenson.

"Even spending a few days in jail has a profound impact on people's lives," says Will Gaona, policy director for the ACLU of Arizona. "Especially for those with low incomes, they're likely to lose their jobs, they may lose their housing, they're in danger of losing custody of their children."

The current cash bail system is part of the problem, Gaona says. It's inefficient and expensive and has a huge, negative effect on low-income individuals.

"We've accepted the idea that the government can hold people in jail — who are legally presumed to be innocent — only because they're poor," he says.

What's more, a study by the New York City Criminal Justice Agency found that conviction rates skyrocketed from 50% to 92% for individuals who are jailed pretrial.

"When you're in jail, you're stuck," Hale says, "for a lot of people who can't afford to pay bail, they don't really have another option other than to take a plea agreement."

Hale says the Mother's Day bailout is an opportunity to shed light on the problems with the cash bail system and inspire people to do what they can to fight it.

She says if you want to get involved, you can donate to the bail fund, refer mothers in need of bail by texting "CHANGE" to 94502, and share information about the event with friends and family.

"Every donation goes a long way," Hale says. "Once [Theresa's] case is finished, we'll get that $5,000 back, which turns into a larger, permanent bail fund that can benefit the whole community."

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