Untitled

Whitner Case (1992)

• Cornelia Whiter, a twenty-eight year old woman, gave birth to a baby boy named Kevin.
• Hospital staff discovered traces of cocaine in Kevin's urine.
• Whitner was arrested for "endangering the life of her unborn child" for smoking crack while pregnant.
• Whitner's attorney advised her to plead guilty and enter a drug treatment program.
• Judge Eppes sentenced Whitner to eight years in prison.

Johnson Case

• Darlene Johnson, a twenty-seven year old mother of four, stood before a California Superior Court judge for sentencing.
• Johnson was eight months pregnant.
• Johnson had already pled guilty to three counts of felony child abuse for whipping her daughters.
• Judge Broadman gave Johnson a choice between a seven-year prison sentence or one year in prison and three years of probation with the condition that she be implanted with Norplant.
• Johnson initially agreed but later learned that Norplant could be dangerous for her due to health problems.
• Judge Broadman refused to rescind the order.
• The ACLU joined Johnson's appeal, arguing that state-coerced birth control violated the fundamental right to procreate.
• An appallate court dismissed Johnson's appeal after she tested positive for drugs and was remanded to prison.

Prosecution of Pregnant Women

• States have recently turned their attention to reproduction as a focus for criminal punishment.
• The cases of Cornelia Whitner and Darlene Johnson represent two controversial ways in which the criminal justice system is penalizing pregnancy: prosecuting women for exposing their babies to drugs and imposing birth control as a condition of probation.
• Most women indicted for criminal offenses after giving birth to babies who test positive for drugs are poor and Black, and addicted to crack cocaine.
• Between 1985 amd 1995, at least 200 women in 30 states were charged with maternal drug use.
• Charges have included distributing drugs to a minor, child abuse and neglect, reckless endangerment, manslaughter, and assult with a deadly weapon.
• In 1989, 82% of Americans questioned in an ABC poll agreed that a pregnant woman who uses crack cocaine and addicts her unborn child should be put in jail for child abuse.
• In 1990, lawmakers in 34 states debated bilss concerning prenatal substance abuse.
• A proposed bill making drug use during pregnancy a felony failed ti pass.
• Employers have excluded fertile women from certain jobs to prevent fetal exposure to workplace hazards.
• As the antiabortion movement portrayed the fetus as a separate person, the fetus acquired legal rights of its own often against the pregnant woman.

Crack Epidemic

• Crack cocaine exploded on the American scene in the early 1980s, and its abuse quickly rose to epidemic proportions.
• Crack became popular in inner cities due to its low cost, instantaneous high, and could be smoked rather than snorted
• The media imbued crack with phenomenal qualities, instant addiction, intensified sex drive etc.
• Crack was vilified for stripping underclass users of evert shred of human dignity.
• Federal spending on the drug problem skyrocketed.
• Approximately hallf of the nation's crack smokers are female.
• In many urban hospitals, the number of drug-exposed infants quadrupled between 1985 and 1990.
• NAPARE found that 11% of newborns in 36 hospitals surveyed were affected by thier mother's illegal drug use during pregnancy in 1988.
• A study estimated that 375,000 drug exposed infants are born every year.
• The Loj Angeled Timed wrote about 375,000 babies "tainted by potentailly fatal narcotics in the Avomb each year."
• The media then created the drama's leading characters - the pregnant addict and the crack baby, both irredeemable and Black.
• The pregnant crack addict was portrayed as selfish womam who put her love for crack above her love for her children.
• The crack baby was always pictured trembling and shrieking in an overcrowded hospital ward, suffering multiple ailments.
• In addition to medical complications, crack babies were supposed to suffer irreversible neurological damage.
• The data on the extent and severity of crack's impact on babies are highly controversial.

Punitive Response and The South Carolina Experiment

• The crisis of drug-exposed babies led state prosecutors, legislators, and judges around the nation to punish women who use drugs while pregnant.
• Penalties include jailing during pregnancy, seizing custody of babies at birth, and prosecuting them for crimes.
• About a dozen sates have enacted statutes requiring the reporting of positive newborn toxicologies to child welfare authorities.
• Now, crack exposure is the leading grounds for newborn foster placement.
• A Washington, D.C. judge sentenced Brenda Vaughn, who pleaded guilty to forging checks, to jail for the duration of her pregnancy.
• Minnesota is the only state so far to pass a lw specifically authorizing civil commitment of pregnanr omen who engage in tje"habitual and exessive use" of drugs.
• Jennifer Clarise Johnson was this country's first criminal conviction of a mother for exposing her baby to drugs while she was pregnant.
• The conviction rested on proving that Johnson passed cocaine metabolite to her babies through their umbilical cord.
• The medical unversity of South Carolina, along with local enforcement, instituted the intergency Policy on Cocain Abuse in Pregnancy providing for nonconsensual drug testing of pregnant patients, reporting results to the police and arrests. Patients testing positive for drugs were offered treatment and threatened with arrest, if they refused or failed.

Arguments Agains Prosecution

• The crisis of drug-exposed babies led state prosecutors, legislators, and judges around the nation to punish women who use drugs while pregnant.
• Penalties include jailing during pregnancy, seizing custody of babies at birth, and prosecuting them for crimes.
• About a dozen sates have enacted statutes requiring the reporting of positive newborn toxicologies to child welfare authorities.
• Now, crack exposure is the leading grounds for newborn foster placement.
• A Washington, D.C. judge sentenced Brenda Vaughn, who pleaded guilty to forging checks, to jail for the duration of her pregnancy.
• Minnesota is the only state so far to pass a lw specifically authorizing civil commitment of pregnanr omen who engage in tje"habitual and exessive use" of drugs.
• Jennifer Clarise Johnson was this country's first criminal conviction of a mother for exposing her baby to drugs while she was pregnant.
• The conviction rested on proving that Johnson passed cocaine metabolite to her babies through their umbilical cord.
• As Condon expressed it, "We all agreed on one principle: We needed a program that used not only a carrot, but a real and very firm stick."

Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities

• 70% of the 52 documented cases involved Black defendants.
• In Florida, 10 out of 11 criminal cases had been brought against Black women.
• Hospitals mainly serving poor minority communities implemented screening practices.
• There are negative relationships betwen Black patients and drug counselors. Black women who use drugs during pregnancy are reported more readily than their white patients.
• Doctors experimented on slave women before practicing new surgical procedures on white women in the past. Doctors have also been more willing to override Black patients' autonomy by performing forced medical treatment to benfit the fetus.

Reasons to Avoid Prosecutions

• Studies suggest that the harmful effects of prenatal crack exposure may be temporary and treatable.
• A Northwestern University study found that comprehensive prenatal care may overcome the outcome.
• Journals tended to accept only studies that supported fetal harm.
• Positive toxicology may only reveal use shortly before delivery not the extent of the mothers drug use, any harm to the baby, or mother's parenting capabilities.
• Thousands of low-income Black mothers have lost custody of their babies on the basis of a solitary drug test.
• Moreover, a study of Northwestern University pregnant cocaine addicts, found that a comprehensive prenatal care may improve the complicated outcome of the pregnancies.
• The medical community over emphasized on studies showing detrimental results from cocaine exposure.

Norplant Sentencing

• Several state legislatures have considered legislation requiring Norplant implantation for drug using mothers or child abusers.
• Although no court has upheld a sentence like this it is still in practice. Judges have also previously orderd people to sterilize, or abstain from sexual intercourse, in order to avoid getting pregnant while under court supervision.
• One of the reasons we continue to punish the sentencing and the choice of women with Norplant is that it often targets low income minorities.

A "War on Drugs"

• Many national drug policy critics argue that the "War on Drugs" serves a similar purpose today.
• Poverty does not always stem from family problems or from drug use.

Finding Support

• Many drug treatment programs are based on male oriented models, what is really needed is a more women oriented program.

Why prosecute?

• The women most likely to turn up in data are poverty and low- income African Americans.
• The state must be able to tell who used drugs during pregnancy who is the poor black community who is already under state observation.

Harms of Prosecuting

• This can come down to the violation of a "Black" person's medical autonomy.

Welfare Reform and Other Myths

• There has been a general agreement that government helps contribute to the welfare of those in need and that they seek to have a hand n better their own behavior.
• Single mother welfare programs can be harmful to the idea of "American" or "Family" values and may force people to conform to new ideals.
• Studies showed that the effects of a family receiving and not receiving aid were often negligible.