Incarceration is some women’s only shot at pregnancy healthcare – but the quality varies enormously
When Evelyn (name changed) found out she was pregnant, she panicked. Thanks to a criminal record, she struggled to find work. Without a regular job, she’d been unable to rent housing and was staying in a single-room occupancy hotel in San Francisco’s Mission District. That was after a stint living on the streets. And while she had technically been able to get insurance through Medicaid, with so much daily stress in her life, the added challenge of seeking out – and affording – regular prenatal care seemed insurmountable.
So when she was arrested and jailed after turning herself in for an outstanding warrant during the third trimester of her pregnancy and she began receiving prenatal care in prison, her incarceration felt like a blessing. “I didn’t get arrested, I got rescued,” she later told Dr Carolyn Sufrin, the OB/GYN who cared for her at the San Francisco county jail.
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