A Georgia woman's harrowing account of giving birth while incarcerated has cast a stark light on the treatment of pregnant women in prisons. Jessica Umberger revealed during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on human rights that her pleas for a vaginal birth were ignored due to policies of the Georgia Department of Corrections, as reported by WABE. Despite her previous Cesarean section being 18 years prior, she was forced to undergo the same procedure once again while serving a five-year sentence at the Helms Facility in Atlanta.
Umberger's ordeal did not end after the birth of her daughter, Jordan. She struggled with preeclampsia and, post-delivery, was given only a brief two-hour period to bond with her newborn. What followed was a transfer to a basement cell where she was subject to having to shower in the presence of a male sergeant. "The next few days I remember random men looking every hour into that small window of the locked door," Umberger told WABE, detailing the violation of her privacy and dignity.
The treatment of pregnant incarcerated women is now under scrutiny due to testimonies like Umberger's, revealing a pattern that Senator Jon Ossoff described as "significant and pervasive" abuse. Ossoff is actively engaging in efforts aimed to shed light on these violations of human rights, with the subcommittee investigating more than 200 such reported cases. The Federal Prison Oversight Act, recently signed into law, promises to strictly to oversee federal prisons and hopefully curb ongoing abuses.
The probe headed by Ossoff has also highlighted other systemic issues such as uncounted deaths, prevalent sexual abuse of women, and corruption within prisons. "We're talking about the medical neglect, the malnourishment, the physical abuse of pregnant women and their babies in American prisons and jails ongoing across the country, as we speak," Ossoff conveyed to WABE. These ongoing investigations act to assure that these grave injustices are not only exposed but also met with the imperative change to protect the rights and well-being of all individuals, regardless of their incarceration status.
