For six days, Cheree Byrd pleaded to corrections officers from an upstate New York jail cell that her water broke and that she was going into labor and that she needed to be transported to the hospital to give birth to a premature baby.
But the corrections officers did not believe the 35-year-old Black woman who had been arrested for misdemeanor petit theft, dismissing her complaints while calling her a liar, giving her some Tylenol and a tampon instead of transporting her to the hospital.
“My baby’s coming out,” Byrd repeatedly yelled to jail staff who ignored her. Other inmates also called for help, but to no avail.
Byrd ended up giving birth to a baby girl named Ayanna Byrd inside her cell, which was when she was finally transported to the hospital, but the baby was pronounced dead an hour later. Now, the case is haunting the county and its taxpayers…