Philadelphia Inquirer - January 7, 2008

A Chance to Do Good, and Save Philadelphia Money

Opinion-Editorial

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Philadelphia, like many cities across the country, faces the unwelcome prospect of drastic budget cuts. While Mayor Nutter's administration has proposed closing libraries, swimming pools and fire stations, there are other, creative ways to save money, serve public safety and promote healthy families. One is to rethink the policy of keeping pregnant women in prisons.

Almost 200,000 women are in prisons throughout the United States, and more than 900 are in Philadelphia's county prison for women, Riverside Correctional Facility. Right now, 36 of these women are pregnant.

Last month, five female prisoners gave birth in Philadelphia area hospitals. Because incarcerated women are not eligible for government-supported insurance, such as Medicaid, the city of Philadelphia pays for every birth and all prenatal care. In addition to hospital charges, there are expenses for guards, transportation and overtime.

A pregnant woman imprisoned for a low-level, nonviolent crime who can't afford bail of around $300 can easily cost the city tens of thousands of dollars. That includes the costs of prenatal and hospital care (for a birth without complications), as well as the costs of guards and transportation. All of that is on top of the annual cost of housing a prisoner, now above $30,000.

With more than 30 pregnant women housed at Riverside, the potential health-care and related costs are staggering.

What is gained by incarcerating pregnant women for nonviolent offenses? The city, its taxpayers, incarcerated mothers, and ultimately their children and families are paying for it.

The Working Group to Enhance Services for Incarcerated Women, a project of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, is a coalition of providers who offer information and services to women incarcerated in Philadelphia prisons. We know that keeping pregnant women incarcerated throughout their pregnancies and in the months after giving birth is detrimental to the women and their children.

In the past, when there were fewer women in the prison population, pregnant women were routinely furloughed - temporarily released from custody to give birth and make arrangements for their newborn children. During this time, a woman could use Medicaid or her own insurance.

Reviving such furloughs for low-risk incarcerated pregnant women would save the city money and offer a more humane and cost-effective way to bring an innocent life into the world.

Prison-reform advocates in the United Kingdom and around the world are pushing for such action as part of a human-rights agenda. Ben Russell of the British newspaper the Independent put it succinctly: "Keeping young mothers and young babies in prison can harm young children and does nothing to cut crime."

In 1787, the confluence of the colonial revolutionary commitment to liberty and the Quaker loathing for violence led to the creation of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, now called the Pennsylvania Prison Society. In the 21st century, it's hard to believe we have not made more progress in our ability to hold people accountable with appropriate and restorative punishment. How can it be that we are still grappling with the issues of past centuries?

Today's fiscal crisis offers us a chance to save precious city resources for other pressing needs, while instituting a more humane way to welcome our newest citizens into the world.

Ann Schwartzman and Jennie Steinkamp are, respectively, the Pennsylvania Prison Society's policy director and a University of Pennsylvania graduate student.  Ann Schwartzman and Jennie Steinkamp are part of the Pennsylvania Prison Society's Working Group to Enhance Services for Incarcerated Women. Their e-mail addresses are aschwartzman@prison-society.org and jennie.steinkamp@gmail.com