Unshackled: Why Eliminating Health Disparities Requires that Our Criminal Justice System Set Incarcerated Mothers and Their Developing Children Free.

Abstract

Incarceration of pregnant nonviolent offenders takes not only the pregnant mother captive but also her unborn child. Kept in unnecessary captivity, these innocent children may experience adverse childhood experiences ("ACES") or lifelong damage to their physical and mental health. The experiences may be the same for children born already to the mother, as they endure the suffering of parental separation during the mother's absence. In terms of racial health disparities, such captivity presents at least a triple threat--harm to the health of the mother, harm to the health of the unborn fetus, and harm to the health of children born already to the mother. Using the story of Brittany Martin, a pregnant, nonviolent social justice protestor sentenced to four years in prison, this Article makes the case that ending racial health disparities requires offering alternatives other than imprisonment for nonviolent offenders who are pregnant. By offering alternatives that support and keep the parent-child relationship intact, and that avoid what may be lifelong negative consequences of imprisonment, these alternatives help break the cycle of poorer health that unfairly plagues marginalized populations.