Lawyer: Let Pregnant Woman Out Of Jail

[rockin'robin]

Rehab Facility Will Give Woman Anti-Addiction Drugs Less Likely To Effect Baby

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A woman prosecutors describe as a chronic traffic offender has served two months of her latest six-month sentence for driving under the influence and drug possession. But prosecutors are not opposing a defense motion asking a judge to let her out of jail early out of concern for the health of her unborn child.

Ashley Sligh, 27, was stopped in August after an officer said she was weaving in and out of traffic and had oxycodone in her car. Police records show she'd been arrested 15 times since 2000 and has been involved in seven wrecks.

Sligh's pregnancy wasn't discovered until after she was sentenced.

Her attorney filed a motion asking that Sligh be released early from jail and admitted to a substance abuse program at River Region Human Services.

Video: Pregnant Inmate Asks For Release Into Rehab

Court documents show that since discovering Sligh was pregnant, the jail medical staff has given her methadone, a medication commonly used to wean heroin addicts off the drug. River Region can give Sligh a drug alternative to methadone that requires a lower dosage and fewer treatments, giving her baby a better chance of being born drug-free.

Sligh's attorneys argue that consuming methadone will not only cause withdrawal symptoms for the baby after it's born, but could also cause developmental defects.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Thursday.

Lawyer: Let Pregnant Woman Out Of Jail - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville

 

[Dixie]

Then why not just release her into supervised custody of the rehab center where she cannot leave and once the child is born she will be returned to jail to complete her sentence? Sounds like a win-win deal to me. She gets treatment, the unborn child gets prenatal care, and justice is served.

 

[sara1981]

Many million expect mom got jail for violate by laws and judge let pregnant mom not get in jail because near full term or not full term but expect mom told judge when baby due need know to truth?!?

 

[Dixie]

Many million expect mom got jail for violate by laws and judge let pregnant mom not get in jail because near full term or not full term but expect mom told judge when baby due need know to truth?!?

Many women do give birth while in jail/prison. Typically when they go into labor they are taken by ambulance to the nearest medical facility, they give birth then the child is usually handed over to foster care or the nearest relative. The mother and child can be reunited once the sentence is completed depending on the charges. IE a woman convicted of armed robbery is less likely to be reunited with her child than a woman who was convicted of forgery.