Child welfare and prison

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FOX Files: Pregnant Missouri Inmates

Last Edited: Monday, 21 Jul 2008, 10:19 PM CDT
Created: Monday, 21 Jul 2008, 10:19 PM CDT


By Mandy Murphey


VANDALIA, MO (KTVI-myFOXstl.com) --

Joanna Thomas set a fire in her boyfriend's home in 2001. She got probation after pleading guilty to arson. But just last month, Joanna went to prison for violating her probation. She claims she told the judge that she could not abide by the probation rules of having a stable address.

She asked for 120 days of shock jail treatment, but the judge gave her probation. She was unable to follow the probation rules and her 9-year sentence was imposed last month.

Women who are pregnant when they're sent to prison in Missouri have very few choices when it's time to deliver their baby.

Fifty-one women are pregnant right now at Missouri's women's prison in Vandalia. They will either have to give their baby to a relative, put it up for adoption, or turn it over to foster care.

All of them get only 24 hours with their baby before a hospital official comes into their hospital room and takes the baby away.

The mother is then sent back to her prison cell.

Some prisons across the country are exploring ways to keep babies with their mothers after delivery. They argue it cuts down on repeat offenders.

Missouri has no plans for that.

Joanna Thomas, the mother FOX 2 spoke with, was full of remorse. She knows how difficult it will be to have to give up her baby, even though her mother will care for the child.

She believes her baby is now the one paying for her crime.

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