A compassionate corrections officer at a women's prison facility in Louisiana agreed to take a pregnant inmate's baby while the inmate served time. The prison administrators didn't look kindly on that. From the Washington Post:
"[Katie] Bourgeois knew she would give birth to her baby while she was locked up at the Louisiana Transition Center for Women — a privately-run educational and training corrections facility in Tallulah, La., for inmates within one year of being released.
Bourgeois’s due date was in mid-May, about seven weeks before her release date in July.
Bourgeois told some of the other women at the facility about her predicament, and several of them mentioned that there was a corrections officer who was kind and might be willing to help her. The officer, Roberta Bell, was known to love babies."
Bell was trying to avoid the newborn being placed in child protective services, and knew that she would have to get permission from the prison authorities to temporarily care for Bourgeois' baby. The permission was denied and Bell was summarily fired when she decided to proceed. The prison, Louisiana Transition Center for Women, is a run by a private corporation, Security Management. With Bourgeois' consent, Bell brought the newborn to her home, while the mother completed the last two months of her sentence.
Bourgeois is now living in Bell's home with her newborn, and Bell has been able to find temporary work as a caregiver and is receiving some help from her own grown children. The prison officials and their management company didn't respond to the Washington Post's inquiries, obviously realizing how low and cruel they were to both women and the baby.
