Ashley Caswell had been jailed for substance use to “protect her unborn child.” When her water broke jail staff told her to “sleep it off," her lawsuit says.
On Friday, an Alabama woman named Ashley Caswell filed a lawsuit against Etowah County and the county sheriff’s department nearly two years after she was jailed while pregnant for alleged substance use, and was forced to give birth in the shower, according to the Guardian. Caswell was in labor for 12 hours and nearly died from blood loss before jail staff finally took her to the hospital, her lawsuit states.
Officers from the sheriff’s department arrested Caswell in March 2021 for alleged substance use on chemical endangerment charges because she was pregnant; her jailing at the Etowah County Detention Center, they reasoned, would “protect her unborn child.” Caswell, a mother of other young children, was held there for the next seven months of her pregnancy until, in October 2021, her water broke. She begged to be taken to the hospital but was told to “sleep it off” and wait until Monday (two days later) to give birth. Through Caswell’s 12 hours of labor, she was only offered Tylenol. The lawsuit alleges she lost so much blood, while left alone through her delivery in a jail shower, that she almost bled to death. Caswell is the latest person to report mistreatment at the detention center while pregnant or postpartum.
“Giving birth to my son without any medical help in the jail shower was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. My body was falling apart, and no one would listen to me. No one cared,” Caswell said in a press release shared with Jezebel. “I thought I’d lose my baby, my life, and never see my other kids again.”
Caswell lost consciousness shortly after giving birth, and still, jail staff neglected to offer medical care. Upon finally being taken to the hospital, she was diagnosed with placental abruption and learned she almost had a stillbirth as the condition can result in the fetus being denied oxygen. When she was returned to the jail, her suit claims she was denied her prescribed breast pump and pain medication.
Caswell is represented by Pregnancy Justice and Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization has tracked over 150 “chemical endangerment” cases in Etowah County alone since 2010. While just 2% of Alabama’s population lives in Etowah County, it represents over 20% of pregnancy-related prosecutions in Alabama, which recorded the highest number of pregnancy-related criminal cases in the nation between 2006 and 2022. Chemical endangerment laws in the state are meant to protect born, living children from home meth labs—instead, they’re weaponized by law enforcement in Alabama (and states across the country) to criminalize and jail pregnant people.
“Ashley is the latest victim of the Etowah County Jail, which consistently punishes pregnant women in the name of protecting ‘unborn children’ while simultaneously endangering their lives,” Pregnancy Justice senior staff attorney Emma Roth said in a statement.
AL.com reported last year that as many as 12 pregnant or postpartum people suspected of substance use were held in Etowah County Detention Center in August 2022 alone. The conditions some of these women have reported are horrific, and include being forced to sleep on the floor after being jailed for alleged marijuana use, and denied sanitary products for bleeding after being jailed within days of giving birth. One woman was jailed for allegedly using substances while pregnant until a pregnancy test she’d initially been denied showed she wasn’t even pregnant.
Caswell is currently serving a 15-year sentence in state prison after being convicted of “Class C” felony chemical endangerment for her substance use while pregnant. As the Guardian notes, conviction on this charge “doesn’t require evidence that the fetus was harmed, but merely exposed to substances.”
“They stripped her of her dignity, violated her constitutional rights, and again showed their callous disregard for mothers and children,” Roth said. “The abuses and violations are numerous, and there is simply no word to describe what she endured other than ‘torture.’”
link: https://jezebel.com/alabama-woman-gave-birth-in-jail-shower-after-begging-t-1850926339
FIFTEEN YEARS???
Jesus fucking Christ! This is all horrific but I nearly missed that part. 15 years for taking a substance that could endanger the baby (no need to prove that it has)
How about being clawed away from your mommy and not being able to grow up with her. That should do good to the little fella for sure.
It says they wanted to protect the unborn baby. Not the born one.
Duh.
This is Alabama we’re talking about, if they could jail the baby for being born in jail they would.
But a company head makes a decision that siphons billions of dollars from poor people, or directly endanger other people’s lives, or, hell, risk the future of our fucking civilization (looking at you Exxon), and maaaybe they get a slap on the wrist if we’re lucky. But only after rising hell on earth for that.
…but a woman gets accused of substance use that might hurt her unborn child, and she gets 15 years. Ruining not only her life, but also her unborn child’s, ironically enough.
If aliens looked down at us on earth, they would have thought we were some uncivilized savages about to blow ourselves up to kingdom come.
US sentences are ridiculous in general.
Kinda sickening that prisoners are treated like livestock once they are in the system. Even once they are out, they are branded for life no matter the crime.
It’s the only condition for slavery that we still have. We need to amend the constitution to disallow slavery even as punishment for broken laws.
Yup, in most other civilized nations imprisonment is a path to rehabilitation. In the US it’s punishment, usually by contributing to the capital of a private corporation
So much of this is fucked up beyond belief.
Being to told to “sleep off” her water breaking is just horrific. I’d expect anyone with even the most rudimentary understanding of pregnancy to know that her water breaking means that birth is only hours away at the most, she can’t just hold it in for two days.
Also, once the water breaks the risk of infection for the baby goes waaaaay up and then, like you said, you are on the clock.
Man, what a fucked up story. I hope she gets massive reparations from this and hopefully this will get big enough to do some actual change. But I doubt that.
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That’s fucking depressing and enraging to hear. I hope you’re doing well.
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Are there no things that trigger something like federal or state investigations for cases like this? The article describes that this is apparently a frequent issue already.
The state, or anyone with a privileged enough position to influence the state, must first give the tiniest iota of a shit about the health, freedom, and/or the futures of the parents and child(ren) involved.
they reasoned, would “protect her unborn child.”
Oh yeah, I can see.
Republicans treat babies and soldiers very similarly. When you’re in the womb/military it’s “protect our children/soldiers”, but once you’re out, you get the big old fuck you
If this article is anything to go by they don’t even have to be out yet to be given the American middle finger
I have a feeling if this detention facility is a private company and it were to be sued in a mass lawsuit from all these women being denied care, it would probably change its name after declaring bankruptcy then be back in business the next day under a new holding company.
If it is public then the men who are undoubtedly in charge of it should all be thrown in to this facility with a false positive pregnancy test on their file to serve 15 years for child endangerment themselves.
I agree with you. But either way they should be thrown into their own prison, public or private
Yes they should be tossed into prison with incorrect identification so that they can’t use connections to get preferential treatment while in there. Give them a few years of random solitary confinement and no communication with the outside world.
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I can think of a few people that should be on trial for endangering her child.
