On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to identify ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups.

The motion, authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directs the Department of Health Services and the sheriff’s department, in coordination with other relevant county departments to report back to the board in 90 days with data on the number of pregnant women and girls in sheriff’s department or probation custody, as well as information about their crimes and sentences, and the number of women and girls who gave birth while in custody, and who took custody of the infants.

In their motion, Solis and Hahn point to a program in New York, at Bedford Hills
Correctional Facility for Women, which helps incarcerated moms to form the crucial infant-mother bonds by allowing them to live with their infants behind bars, for up to a year and a half.

The county’s offerings for pregnant and post-partum women include a program that allows mothers to send their frozen breast milk to their babies, a weekly visitation program for mothers and their young children, and an upcoming program that will help incarcerated mothers with physical and mental health services, parenting, and negotiating moms’ reunification with their children once they are released from jail.

To read more of Taylor Walker's article, visit: http://witnessla.com/la-county...ls-and-their-babies/