Alabama has some of the harshest laws in the nation against drug use during pregnancy and prosecutes more women than any other state. In Etowah County, law enforcement agencies have arrested more than 150 women since 2010, according to NAPW research.
Craig Battles and Hali Burns have two children. After the birth of their second, Hali was arrested and spent months inside the Etowah County Detention Center while recovering from birth.An Etowah County judge ordered the release this week of a mother who was arrested days after the birth or her son and then spent two months in jail because she was unable to meet conditions of release.
Emma Roth, an attorney with National Advocates for Pregnant Women who is assisting with the legal representation of several women incarcerated at the jail, said Burns is under the supervision of community corrections.National Advocates for Pregnant Women is an organization that fights against laws aimed at criminalizing conduct during pregnancy.
In August, a treatment facility in Birmingham said it would admit Burns. But she failed a drug test administered in the jail and could not be transferred. Another drug treatment center said it did not require a clean drug test for admission, but Etowah County officials would not assist Burns’ transfer to the other facility, according to court documents.
Medical experts who submitted affidavits in her case wrote that separating mothers from newborns is linked to developmental delays and could aggravate postpartum mental illness. Burns’ attorneys argued the jail was not a safe place for her. Her boyfriend Craig Battles said jail officials would not accept his offers to bring sanitary products to the jail for Burns, who was experiencing bleeding after the birth of her child.
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