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Posted on 11/25/2025 12:23:57 PM PST by Morgana
When Chasity Congious went into labor for the first time, there were no doctors or nurses. No clean blankets to swaddle the coming baby. There were no family members, no friends.
Congious wasn’t even in a hospital. She was alone in a jail cell.
Four months earlier, she suffered a mental health crisis and her mother called 911 for help. Instead, police arrested the 21-year-old.
Now, the contractions were getting stronger, with no way to ease the soaring pain. Bleeding, she said, she pressed the emergency intercom button, but no one came. She tried to get up from the thin, dirty mat, but could not.
She started pushing.
The baby girl was born into the pant leg of Congious’ beige uniform on May 17, 2020, in the Tarrant County, Texas, jail. The newborn struggled to breathe. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck — a common problem often resolved with a quick unraveling by a doctor’s hands.
But no one was there to help. Congious’ daughter, named Zenorah, died days later.
Horrific scenes like this are unfolding in jails across the country, according to a yearlong investigation from Bloomberg Law and NBC News that reveals systemic failures. Pregnant women are locked up, often for petty crimes, and say their cries for help go ignored. They are miscarrying or giving birth in excruciating pain into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors. Newborns are suffering infections and long-lasting health issues, their mothers say. Some babies die.
These catastrophes are largely hidden from public view. To bring them to light, this investigation relied on thousands of pages of legal complaints, depositions, police reports, medical and jail records, and body camera and surveillance video. Reporters interviewed more than 60 people including a dozen formerly incarcerated women. Among the tragedies:
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
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If she's been put under arrest then the judge she release her with an ankle bracelet until court. Wait till she gives birth to send her to jail/prison. That would save money and keep the baby safe.
If she must be locked up for her own safety then put her in a nervous hospital.
What is inhumane is when someone is called for from the holding tank for questioning and are dragged back bloody, unconscious, and beaten to a pulp after a visit to the “rubber room”.
Agreed.
However, it brings to mind that Jesus, while not born in a jail cell, was brought forth in conditions not much more sanitary or with medical supervision.
States need to be held accountable for jails refusing medical treatment that is obviously needed pregnancy, open wounds getting infected and blood poisoning settling in while in jail, rapes, bloody beatings, all kinds of real and obvious emergency room type stuff that the jailors ignore and even laugh at.
I highly doubt the reports as listed and have no sympathy for any of the mothers.
I think you’ll find if women are locked up pregnant here in America they get pretty good care.
I know of no "petty crimes" that result in actual jail time.
Its MSM-NBC, I will bet you $100 the real facts of this story don’t match what they have written here.
The purpose of left-wing, emotive, advocacy “journalism” is to manipulate your emotions.
“Nervous hospital”😂😂
Annie and her comrades need to volunteer to take these criminals home with them and take care of her and her baby.
What a terrible, horrible, harrowing report. Dickensian. Sad to think how low and unforgiving America has fallen, after all the do-gooders in the 60s drove prayer out of the schools because “it would harm the children.”
I agree. But more than a few here will figure what happens to the baby is just a “too bad” consequence of the mother’s incarceration.
We tried to help you many times, telling you not to do drugs, not to lie, cheat or steal, and not to vote for Democrats. But you did them all, so now.. there isn’t much we can do to help you anymore along with any spawn you produce.
The article says she pressed the emergency intercom. Excuse me, but jail and prison cells aren't equipped with emergency intercoms, so who is lying here? Was she in an actual jail cell or in a single locked room in a psych wing of the jail because she was mentally ill? Or was she actually in a treatment room at the jail's infirmary. A room in a psych wing or in the infirmary would likely have an intercom for her to press for help. Something is missing here.
The article is written to provide sympathy for this woman. I don't trust any reporter to search out the true facts and provide them in a story like this. The writer left out a lot of facts, and a lot of questions left unanswered. Jails and prisons don't have doctors on-site 24 hours a day. They do have a nurse or nurses though. Jails and prisons aren't equipped to treat inmates with life-threatening conditions. They are taken to outside hospitals, many in ambulances, depending on the situation. This article provides no information regarding her transport to a local hospital. Jail or prison uniformed staff are required to go with them.
I'm an old lady now, but worked in uniform for 25 years in NY State's prison system. I only worked in male facilities, but I was also a divorced mother of two sons I raised by myself, so I know what its like to give birth with and without anesthesia, and none of them were when I had my pants on. Did this woman know how babies were made, but not how they were delivered? Was she even seeing a doctor during her pregnancy? Was she on meds for her mental problems? Again...questions unanswered.
A large number of these problems have been caused by State's closing psychiatric centers. Back in the early 80's, NY State Governor Mario Cuomo closed psychiatric centers all over the State, and tossed the residents into the street, claiming they'd get better treatment in the community. That turned out to be a big lie, and so those residents ended up as prisoners in NY State's prison system. I saw it first hand. One of the psychiatric centers he closed ended up becoming a prison that I spent most of my career at. The State prison system, and the staff ended up not only having to deal with convicted felons, but mentally ill convicted felons. I've been retired for almost 23 years, and the situation has only gotten worse. All one has to do is look at the number of mentally ill committing heinous crimes, then finding out how many times they'd been arrested and released before they finally murdered someone.
The number of deaths in U.S. prisons has been rising significantly over the years. In 2020, there were at least 6,182 deaths reported in prisons, marking a 61% increase from 2019, despite a decrease in the overall prison population.
Suicides in state prisons increased by 22% from 2016 to 2018.
Deaths from drug and alcohol intoxication rose by 139% during the same period. The mortality rate in state prisons has been on an upward trend, indicating worsening conditions.
Woman who gave birth unattended in Tarrant County jail arrested again after mental health crisis
Congious’ legal troubles began in 2019, when she was charged with injury to a child, elderly or disabled person. That case stemmed from a fight with a family member, Hammond said.
Congious pleaded guilty, and the court placed her on four years of probation, court documents show.
In 2020, Congious was charged with assault on a family member, which violated her probation. Congious’ family called police, seeking to have her brought to John Peter Smith Hospital, but she was arrested, according to the federal lawsuit Hammond has filed against FWPD and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
...
In early December 2023, prosecutors filed a motion to go after Congious for probation violations again. Congious did not report to her supervision officer in four separate months, did not provide a urine sample on one occasion, did not complete her community service hours or pay her supervision fees, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Congious could not always report because she was in and out of psychiatric hospitals, Hammond said. As for the community service hours, Congious would not be stable enough to complete them, she added.
She sued Tarrant County and in May, 2024 the county settled the lawsuit for $1.2 million.
Most likely in the psych wing as she's been diagnosed as mentally incompetent.
It's good to not trust the article as the incident happened in 2020.
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