EXCLUSIVE: PRISON BIRTH PROJECT

In their February submission to the Undergraduate Journal of Public Health, Ashlyn Johnson and Gabriella Pough write about the amplified difficulties incarcerated women face when dealing with the hardships of pregnancy. Their piece, “Reproductive Injustice and Quality of Care: Addressing the Healthcare Crisis for Incarcerated Women,” explains a variety of dehumanizing obstacles these women face and what is being done to overcome them. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Ashlyn is a junior studying neuroscience and Gabrielle is a senior, also studying neuroscience. They are the Co-Directors of Prison Birth Project’s Research Committee. As directors, they lead committee meetings and decide which member-pitched ideas pique further research. They are currently working on interviewing incarcerated mothers and reaching out to professors for possibly distributing educational materials in Women & Gender Studies classes here at the University of Michigan. 

What was your story for growing into who you are today in Prison Birth Project?

Ashlyn worked at a gynecology office the summer after her freshman year and gained exposure to various aspects of pregnancy care. That experience got her thinking about women who don’t have access to such care—and led her to Prison Birth Project (PBP). 

Gabriella was interested in restorative justice and incarceration even before college. She enjoys how various projects at PBP—such as Roe v. Wade zines and interviews with incarcerated mothers—align with current events. Gabriella finds that each meeting teaches her a shocking new fact or creates some other learning experience.

If you wanted to condense it into a short phrase, what is PBP’s central mission?

Gabriella sees PBP’s mission as the intersection of activism and restorative justice through promoting awareness and outreach. For instance, the Community Outreach Committee of PBP is doing menstrual project drives. To Ashlyn, a huge part is member education—most members join the club with general interests before eventually specializing in more niche topics.

What spurred this submission to UJPH?

This submission was something the Research Committee has done previously as a means of disseminating educational materials outside of PBP. Ashlyn was particularly interested in substance abuse for incarcerated women as it is implicated with significant moral dilemmas. She questions imprisoning drug-using women to protect the health of the fetus because imprisonment can often worsen the health of both the mother and fetus. She cites a lack of proper withdrawal treatments for mothers as one way in which incarceration negatively impacts health. Retroactive imprisonment—or the lack thereof—is also an issue. Many women remain imprisoned for using drugs that are now legalized, partially because exoneration is a lengthy and difficult process.

Your article highlights barriers remaining in many aspects of care, such as in mother-baby units. Could you share more about how those and other barriers manifest?

Women are still often separated from their families in prison. They are sometimes separated from their babies within hours, and the visitation schedule for family members is notoriously unreliable. Some incarcerated women skip family visits altogether because they feel dehumanized by the pre- and post-visit strip searches.

Another topic was financial difficulties for families wanting to visit incarcerated members: Where do you see opportunities for supporting incarcerated people outside of prisons?

Prison labor is commonplace, and wages are paltry. Gabriella compared it to slave labor, as the pay can be as low as a few cents per day. Ashlyn mentions that this system runs on a twisted power dynamic. During the LA wildfires, for example, fire departments were aided by prisoners working the fires. Many prisoners take on dangerous and underpaid work because they can get time off their sentence. Gabriella believes that raising their pay, at least to minimum wage, can be beneficial.

Despite the disproportionate amount of women imprisoned in the United States, it can be easy for it to fade as a topic in everyday life. What do you feel is the main reason we as a community and nation should be concerned right now?

Gabriella: I think it is a niche topic, but I always thought it was important how countries treat vulnerable people because it says a lot about the country as a whole. So we should care because they are members of society, and this is just overall inhumane. We have so much money as a developed country, so we shouldn’t be putting people through this. Other countries focus more on restoration than imprisoning people, so it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Ashlyn: I think it just needs to be talked about more because if women realized how many people were in prison who were pregnant and who couldn’t get the care that they got, they’d be more inclined to do something. Pregnancy is long and hard, and I think it’s crazy for a pregnant woman with all these resources to think about someone who doesn’t have that. I really think it just needs to be talked about more.