A woman who gave birth to her baby alone on the dirty concrete floor of her jail cell after six hours in labour claims her screams for help were ignored by staff.
Jazmin Valentine is suing the company that provided medical staff to Washington County jail in Hagerstown, Maryland, alleging nurses from Pennsylvania-based PrimeCare Medical, Inc, said she was withdrawing from drugs and was not in labour, and some jail staff laughed at her and said she was just trying to get out of her cell.
Ms Valentine claims she punched the walls of her solitary confinement unit, which lacked blankets or sheets, during her most painful contractions and removed what she believed was her baby’s amniotic sac and slid it under her cell door to prove she was having a baby.
A fellow inmate who heard the woman’s pleas and called Ms Valentine’s boyfriend, who called the jail to plead with staffers to help her, the lawsuit said.
The nurses also ignored a concern raised by a jail deputy about Ms Valentine but he did not contact any superiors, according to the lawsuit.
He discovered Ms Valentine holding her baby girl in her cell around 15 minutes after she was born just after midnight on 4 July, 2021 and an ambulance was called to take them to hospital, the court documents say.
Ms Valentine, who had never given birth before, said she feared her baby would die and she might bleed to death while delivering her.
But realising no one was going to help her, she said she was determined to try to deliver the baby on her own.
“In my brain anything could happen,” she said. “I felt like I was in the hands of the devil, honestly.”
The lawsuit alleges Washington County, Maryland, its sheriff department and sheriff, as well as nurses and deputies at the jail, violated Ms Valentine’s rights under state law and the US Constitution.
Ms Valentine was more than eight months pregnant when she was arrested for an alleged probation violation and taken to the jail the day before she went into labour, according to the lawsuit.
She was released several days later and her baby is doing well, she said.
The claim is similar to another filed in 2019 by a woman who gave birth alone in Denver’s jail the year before – who claimed nurses and deputies ignored her cries for help during five hours of labour.
Diana Sanchez cries out in agony as she goes into labour
Surveillance footage showed Diana Sanchez crying out in agony before eventually lying on a narrow bed.
The footage was released by the same law firm which is now representing Ms Valentine.
After Ms Sanchez delivered her baby the Denver County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, said it changed its policy to ensure pregnant inmates who are in any stage of labour are immediately taken to hospital. Decisions about whether to move a pregnant inmate were previously left to jail nurses.
Ms Sanchez gave birth to her baby son alone before a nurse walked in and picked up the baby
David Lane, whose law firm is involved in both cases, said he believes they highlight problems of privatising health care behind bars and the attitudes of correctional administrators.
“As long as jail and prison administrators view inmates as animals these kinds of things will continue to happen,” he said.
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Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
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