‘I probably cried every day.’ Tulare County jails denying prenatal care, ACLU says
Alexandra Meza knew something was wrong. She was pregnant, serving a one-year sentence for felony DUI in a Tulare County jail and, she says, she couldn’t stop bleeding.
It was her second pregnancy, so Meza said she knew bleeding wasn’t “normal.” She said there wasn’t a doctor available at the jail to examine her when she bled, because a physician only went to the facility at certain times. To make matters worse, Meza said, sometimes jail staff wouldn’t believe her.
“Blood meant that I needed to see a doctor, and every time I would tell them about it, they would just brush it off,” she said. “They would even make me, like, pull my pants down and show them that I was actually bleeding, like I was lying or something.”
Staff at the Tulare County Sheriff’s Bob Wiley Detention Facility in Visalia eventually took Meza to the hospital, after she bled for three days, she said. She said the incident was one of several times she was denied prenatal care while she was at the county jail. She didn’t get to see an OB-GYN until she was around two months pregnant, she said.
The ACLU of Northern California last month sent a letter to Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, expressing its “deep concern over the severely inadequate and unlawful provision of prenatal care in the Tulare County jails.” The Nov. 18 letter details the stories of three pregnant women — including Meza — who were denied adequate prenatal care in Tulare County jails.
“Failure to provide adequate prenatal care in your jails is an urgent and alarming matter,” the letter reads.
The letter asks Boudreaux to respond within 10 days with details of how his agency plans to address the problem, in the interest of avoiding formal proceedings.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office didn’t comment on when it would respond to the ACLU. Ashley Ritchie, a spokeswoman for the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, said officials had no comment at this time.
“At this point, we have not been served with any kind of lawsuit,” Ritchie said. “So we will not be commenting on any allegations.”
Similar issues led to a $1.5 million settlement in April in Orange County, after a federal lawsuit alleged a woman gave birth while sitting in the infirmary cell toilet and lost the baby.
AB 732 expanded prenatal services to California jails
In its letter, the ACLU calls on the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office to fully comply with Assembly Bill 732, which expanded prenatal care from prisons to jails.
The new law, signed into law in 2020, requires county jails to provide a pregnancy test within 72 hours from the in-take process to people who could be pregnant. The legislation also requires an inmate who is pregnant to be “scheduled for pregnancy examination” within seven days and to receive specific prenatal care, as well as a nutritious diet approved by a doctor.
Pregnant inmates can’t be restrained during and after pregnancy, and can request access to community-based programs designed for pregnant, birthing or lactating inmates. The law also requires that every female inmate be provided with menstrual products.
“It is a fairly new law, and the reason why we worked on expanding it, is because we saw that those services were lacking,” Faride Perez Aucar, a gender, sexuality and reproductive justice staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, told The Bee.
But even with the new legislation in place, she said, those services are not being provided for women at the Tulare County jails. The ACLU letter says that while the Tulare County jails’ policies were modified after the passage of AB 732, they don’t fully address what’s required under the law, and staff don’t appear to be following the policies.
“We’re continuing to see those problems since its passage,” Perez Aucar said of AB 732. “In practice, apparently, it’s not happening.”
The letter alleges the Sheriff’s Department failed to comply with the law in several ways. As of October, women reported not receiving menstrual products. And Meza, the letter says, was never connected with two specialists she had been referred to.
The ACLU says it successfully petitioned the Tulare County Superior Court to release Meza and two other women who were not getting needed prenatal care. They were eventually released due to their high-risk pregnancies and because the jail “failed” to provide prenatal services as required by the new law, Perez Aucar said.
“The judge agreed that the services were inadequate and their pregnancies and health would be endangered if they were not immediately released,” she said.
Moving forward, Perez Aucar said she would like to see diversionary programs for pregnant women, and she is willing to work with counties to ensure the new law is being followed properly.
Pregnant inmate released, gave birth in May
While pregnant in jail, Meza developed gestational diabetes and a condition called placenta previa, which causes bleeding. She recalled her experience as “traumatizing.”
“I probably cried every day,” said Meza, who was incarcerated on Oct. 19, 2020. “I was dealing with a lot on top of not going to the doctor.”
After being released on March 5, Meza received the care she needed and gave birth to her son Mario in May. She said the baby had a few problems at birth, but he’s now healthy.
“I’m kind of happy about that,” she said.
Meza remains out of custody, Perez Aucar said, and her case has been closed.
But Meza and the ACLU fear that other women might find themselves in a similar situation.
“We are really worried because it really is a life or death matter if somebody is not able to see their doctor,” Perez Aucar said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘I probably cried every day.’ Tulare County jails denying prenatal care, ACLU says."
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