A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a former inmate who accuses corrections officers of recording the delivery of her baby.
The lawsuit was filed by Flood Law on behalf of Natalie Forrest, a former inmate at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Pittsfield Township. Five officers are named in the suit along with Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) Director Heidi Washington, Deputy Director Jeremy Bush and the prison’s warden, Jeremy Howard.
Flood Law attorney Maura Battersby says despite a warning that recording undressed women is a felony, the policy continued 18 days after the birth of Forrest’s son at Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital.
“That’s the big question, right? How they could possibly justify doing so? It’s stunning! It is without any real justification!”
The recordings are alleged to have included active labor, cervical exams, childbirth and breastfeeding. The suit seeks a jury trial along with compensatory and punitive damages.
“Initially when the women started saying these body cameras are recording us during strip searches, they said, no, they’re not. So they lied to them about it and justified it because it would put the evidence for any PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) claims, which is prison rape, basically – so they tried to justify it that way.”
The suit also states that the baby’s grandmother was informed that if she took a photograph of her grandson, her daughter would receive an additional two years in jail. Forrest was a minimum-security prisoner serving time for a non violent drug offense…