Pregnant Women Are Being Failed by North Texas Jails, Investigation Finds 

Last year, Tarrant County decided that the price of Chasity Congious’ trauma and deceased child was $1.2 million. The settlement was reached after Congious was incarcerated in 2020 while in the throes of a mental health crisis and five months pregnant. Four months after her arrest, Congious gave birth in the Tarrant County Jail alone. 

According to an investigation by Bloomberg Law and NBC News that explores the risks pregnant women face while incarcerated, Congious’ story isn’t a fluke or an example of a few bad apples. It’s part of a pattern.

Her story is one of dozens that reporters uncovered after investigating federal civil rights lawsuits filed between 2017 and 2024. The prevalence of the suits suggests that across the country, jails are failing to provide critical medical care to pregnant inmates, the report claims. 

By the time attendees responded to Congious’ repeated pressing of an emergency intercom, the woman was bleeding out and “nearly catatonic,” a review of the lawsuit found. Her child, a girl, was born into the pant leg of Congious’ uniform with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. 

The baby had been without oxygen for too long and never emerged from the coma she was born into. Ten days after the birth, the baby, named Zenorah, died. After being treated at a local hospital, Congious was returned to jail. She never got to hold her baby. 

Three lawsuits involving North Texas women were included in the investigation, but experts suggest that the number of women who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes while incarcerated is dramatically underreported. Twenty-two states do not track pregnancy outcomes in jails at all, and the cost of filing a federal lawsuit is a significant barrier to many families. 

While some jails have medical professionals on staff, others outsource care and avoid giving pregnant inmates “special treatment,” even though pregnancy does require specialized care, the report found. 

“When staff see their patients as inmates and not as patients and as mothers, this is the result,” Julia Yoo, a lawyer who has represented incarcerated women for decades, told reporters. “The value of human life in prison and jail is worth less — including for these children, because of who their parents are. … They are born with a stigma or they are not even born at all because they are viewed as not worthy of life.”

Emergency Care in Texas Jails

Bloomberg Law and NBC News report that Tarrant County Jail officials declined to extensively comment on Congious’ case, stating that “detention staff are not allowed to make any medical decisions.” Reporters were referred to the jail’s medical care providers, who stated that all individuals in the jail have access to mental health services. 

Jail medical reports, however, paint a more in-depth picture. According to records, Congious’ mental health deteriorated while in jail, and a nurse described her state as “child-like.” Four days before Congious gave birth, an OB-GYN examined her and suggested that her labor be induced so it could be better controlled. The records also deny that Congious asked for help, stating that jail personnel were “feet away” from her cell door at the time she gave birth. 

In 2018, Irene Rodriguez experienced a similarly traumatic birth while incarcerated in Navarro County for a probation violation. Bloomberg Law and NBC News’ review of Rodriguez’s lawsuit found that her requests for prenatal care were denied, and that, at 25 weeks pregnant, she alerted staff that she believed she was in premature labor. She was not taken to the hospital, and gave birth to twins in her cell with the assistance of EMTs, the investigation found. 

The lawsuit states that the children had cerebral palsy, kidney failure, respiratory failure, and other issues, and one died at 3 years old from medical complications. A medical provider later noted that “late, limited prenatal care” complicated her pregnancy, the lawsuit states. She later settled with the jail’s medical provider, and both the medical provider and the county have denied Rodriguez’s allegations of wrongdoing. 

Another woman, Shaye Bear, also gave birth in a North Texas jail in 2018. Bear was jailed for possession of meth — notable because, in many of these lawsuits, medical providers and counties blame former drug use for negative pregnancy outcomes. 

According to the report, Bear screamed “for days” while experiencing cramping and bleeding, but was “accused of faking her symptoms.” A jail doctor said she was not in labor, a lawsuit states, and she eventually was forced to hold up her 1-pound baby to “prove that she needed assistance.” The baby died nine days later, and the case was settled out of court, with the jail’s medical provider denying Bear’s allegations. 

Bloomberg Law and NBC News found that the majority of women who have experienced pregnancy complications while incarcerated were jailed for low-level charges such as probation violations or theft. Lauren Kent, a woman from Collin County, was booked into the county jail after using a credit card found in a parking lot to buy groceries. At the time, she was suffering from addiction and was homeless. 

A lawsuit filed by Kent against the county states that she complained to staff about bleeding and cramping, but was told to “prove” her condition by collecting the blood in a menstrual pad. A nurse wrote that Kent’s condition appeared more “behavioral than medical.” 

“I was just holding my stomach on this concrete bed and I was begging and crying for help,” Kent told reporters. “I told them something is wrong, this feels like I’m in labor.”

Four months pregnant, Kent miscarried into her cell’s toilet. While being wheeled out of the cell on a stretcher, she watched a nurse put her son’s body into a medical waste bag, the report claims. Kent received a settlement from the jail’s medical provider, but in court filings, Collin County blamed the miscarriage on Kent’s former drug use rather than her medical treatment while incarcerated. Kent is now sober. 

Congious, Kent and Bear’s cases are included in the Bloomberg Law and NBC News investigation because they filed federal lawsuits, but other North Texas women have suffered the same ordeal. In 2018, a woman gave birth in a Johnson County jail cell. In 2014, the same thing, but in Wichita County. 

Some states have begun working on reform that would help keep pregnant women who have committed non-violent offenses from being jailed. Illinois, Maryland and Tennessee have adopted laws that shorten sentences for pregnant women, while a Virginia law makes it easier for pregnant women to be released on bail. 

In 2021, Texas passed a law that requires the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to provide an obstetrician or gynecologist and mental health care to an incarcerated woman who has suffered a miscarriage or a sexual assault, but the mandate still falls short of what some say is needed reform. 

In September of this year, Victoria Boldon gave birth while in custody at the Johnson County jail — the second birth at the jail in just seven years. In an interview with KERA, Boldon said she was denied medical care when she alerted jailers that she felt she was going into labor. Instead of being taken to the hospital, she was told to count her contractions. She said she “knew her fate” when her water broke, and understood that her baby would be born in the jail cell. 

Johnson County officials declined to comment on Boldon’s claims to KERA, citing HIPAA laws. According to KERA, Boldon was serving a 30-day sentence for failing to complete community service requirements associated with a previous drug charge. 

“I just didn’t want to die here, I didn’t wanna die in this cell,” Boldon told KERA. “And I just wanted my baby to be okay. And I felt bad for people who had to clean up the cell, and they put me back in the [same] cell. It was just a traumatic ordeal.”