A woman is suing Collin County after she says she was denied the right to see a doctor while she was pregnant in jail, says Fox News.
The lawsuit alleges that she later suffered a miscarriage after enduring an undiagnosed urinary tract infection.
The lawsuit alleges that Collin County incentivizes its third-party medical provider for the jail to cut costs. It alleges that is what led to an inmate being denied the right to proper prenatal care, which, in turn, resulted in the death of her baby.
Lauren Kent says her cries for help for her unborn baby were ignored for 36 days while in the Collin County jail.
“I begged them for help on more than one occasion,” she said.

How many of us Texans know someone who was pregnant while in jail–often finding out they were pregnant after being jailed–and then lost the baby? Most of the time, that mother-to-be wasn’t receiving good ob-gyn care, good nutrition and good support. Then after their miscarriage, they were tossed back in the cell without any medical or mental health care. That’s why Texas Jail Project supported HB 1307, a bill REQUIRING that jails provide counseling and care for those jailed while pregnant, who then miscarried or were assaulted while confined there.

And the governor signed HB 1307, authored by Rep. Mary González, into law this month!! Small steps, folks. But they they make a difference for people in those cells. 
(Click CONTINUE READING to get the whole story.)

COVID-19 has upped the need for information about our county jails, but in the past, “South Texas jails have “notoriously” been places lacking in transparency,” said Diana Claitor, co-founder of the Texas Jail Project, a nonprofit that aims to give voice to those incarcerated in jails.

My son, Clinton Joseph Harrington, was born on July 24, 1986. He died on October 18, 2018 while in pre-trial custody in the Victoria County Jail. Information from the Medical Examiner and Texas Rangers raises serious concerns about the conditions of Clinton’s confinement and the circumstances leading up to his death. We have chosen not to comment on the details of that information at this time. Clinton was 32 years old at the time of his death.

In this new story from WFAA, top notch reporting reveals what happened to Shaye Bear as well as poor medical care for many pregnant inmates in Texas county jails. Tanya Eiserer and her team also expose punitive attitudes and blatant lies by Ellis County. The work of Texas Jail Project and observations from TJP’s director Diana Claitor provide context. Claitor commented that one serious problem is that many officers’ first reaction to an inmate’s complaints is that anything she says is a lie. But if the case of a pregnant inmate, another life is at stake if the jailer’s wrong, she said.

“They’re not always lying,” she said, referring to pregnant women.

Claitor says she’s received at least three complaints about the Ellis County jail – all of them involving pregnant inmates. Eiserer goes on to discuss how many women suffer in jails without any accountability.

TJP highlighted the tragic death of Nathan Green from the first moment we heard from his loving family in Livingston, Texas. It was inconceivable that a healthy man could contract TB in the jail and not be treated or his family notified until he was unconscious in a local hospital. Now Slate, a national online magazine, found his story through our website “Jailhouse Stories: Voices of Pretrial Detention in Texas” and interviewed the family to feature in their article on deaths in custody. (go to next page for Slate link & story)
Texas Jail Project has come to know Nathan’s family and other Livingston families who have lost loved ones to the Polk County criminal justice system. We are proud of how they are pursuing justice like they did at the recent legislature and are now doing in the courts. The family keeps Nathan’s light shining.

The King, Bogany and Wills families, with historic roots in Polk County, all lost their sons in the Polk County criminal justice system. We were honored that they stopped by our office to express appreciation for the encouragement and information Texas Jail Project has given them.
They hope you will encourage us too, by donating to TJP, by check or Pay Pal. (See our donate button on this page) Continue on, to read the first hand accounts of the King family that are part of our Jailhouse Stories collection.

When Brenda Martin recalls how her only child’s life came to an end at the age of 37, she knows there was not one isolated event that caused his early demise. But she’s convinced that although he didn’t die in custody, the 73 days he spent in Caldwell County jail directly contributed to his death.

At Texas Jail Project, we’ve always been disheartened by jail staff and officials who automatically assume that all complaints coming from a pregnant woman—or from any prisoner for that matter—are lies. As the authors of this interesting series state: "This notion—that prisoners, and especially women prisoners, are liars—permeates the dozens of cases we reviewed where prisoners suffered miscarriages, still-births, and even deaths."

They take a clear-eyed look at this negative attitude that shapes so much of the treatment of women. The stories are moving, the research solid, and their reporting reveals previously unknown forms of abuse, such as the Chicago jail’s practice of forcing women who are close to term to have induced labor.

In the course of their five-month investigation, RH Reality Check authors spoke with TJP’s director several times, and we are pleased to see their references to Texas Jail Project’s efforts on behalf of Texas women.

“”The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, created in 1957 by the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”
We believe that those “vulnerable members” include people in Texas county jails. Especially in those counties where we hear from numerous familes begging for help for loved ones: sons abused by other prisoners and guards, pregnant daughters losing weight and needing care, veterans with mental illness locked in solitary, geriatric parents needing medical care. That’s when you call on the DOJ.