But that’s not the case in Etowah, where 93% of chemical endangerment arrests from 2015 to 2023 involved women.ĭuring that time, three-quarters of the people arrested for chemical endangerment in Etowah County didn’t have the money to hire a lawyer. According to court records, on average, 68% of chemical endangerment arrests in each large county were of women. Police in Alabama can arrest men and women for having drugs in the home or car near a child. The women were charged with chemical endangerment.ĪL.com found that, unlike other counties, Etowah mainly prosecutes mothers. No county does more to locate, jail and keep new mothers behind bars.Īn AL.com analysis of Alabama court records and interviews with local officials, lawyers, advocates and the women who have been arrested revealed that Etowah County officials specifically focus on pregnant women.īetween 20, the county arrested 257 pregnant women and new moms - that’s more per capita than any other large county in Alabama. While Alabama leads the nation in arrests of pregnant drug users, Etowah County, which has about 100,000 residents and is located in the hills of the northern part of the state, stands apart. Alabama lawmakers in 2006 created the chemical endangerment law to protect children from meth lab hazards, but Etowah and a handful of other counties apply the law to alleged hazards in the womb from drug use.įor smoking marijuana, Stewart found that she had become something both disgraceful and common: another pregnant woman headed for jail in Etowah County. Six years before her arrest, Etowah County officials had embarked on an unprecedented crackdown on pregnant drug users. The judge sent her to jail for five days for failing the drug test. The prosecutor silently jotted a couple words down on a sticky note and passed it to the judge, Stewart said. I was just really unaware of how the system worked, and the way things were.” “I’m getting into bartending, and now I’m pregnant. I have a great job,” Stewart told AL.com. “I think, OK, I’ll tell them I work for the country club. Then the big reveal: “I told them that I was pregnant, thinking it would help me,” Stewart recalled. She attempted to sway the prosecutor by telling her about all the good things going on in her life. This article was published in partnership with AL.com.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |