Editor’s Note: The following essay is a condensed version of a longer essay that appeared first in National Affairs. Last year, A&E ran a reality program called “Born Behind Bars,” which provides a ...

Destiny Doud thought she had just 48 hours to be a mother. Like most of the hundreds of pregnant women who give birth while serving time each year, Doud was slated to give up her newborn to a relative ...

Maggie Burke testifies in support of the House prison nursery bill at the Capitol. In late June 1976, Barbara Baker gave birth to her son. “We were able to stay together five days, you know, bonding ...

Lindsay Landon beamed as her 10-month-old son, Gabriel, scooted across a playroom. He crawled over to a baby walker, proudly pulled himself up to stand — then promptly fell over. Lip quivering, he ...

Margaret Sines holds her 1-month-old baby Noah as she feeds him in the nursery at the state Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Mo., on Feb. 5, 2026. Sines has ...

Over half of all women in U.S. prisons are mothers, as are 80% of women in jails, including many who are incarcerated awaiting trial simply because they can’t afford bail. It is estimated that up to 2 ...

Missouri is now the 10th state in the country that has a nursery imbedded within its Department of Corrections. “I got to stay with her for 48 hours, and then my husband came to get her. It was the ...

One could say innocent people have had to pay for poor choices made by every prison inmate in Iowa. But it's especially true of the handful of babies born each year to women serving time in prison.

The Correctional Center Nursery Program would allow women who give birth while incarcerated the chance to stay with their newborns in prison for up to 18 months. Nurseries for incarcerated mothers are ...

VANDALIA, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Megan Abundis covers Kansas City, Missouri, including neighborhoods in the southern part of the city. This nursery program caught her eye online, and she wanted to ...

Five incarcerated women at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic & Correctional Center in Vandalia were chosen to act as caretakers at a nursery that opened on the prison grounds in January. The ...