Woman who gave birth on jail floor goes to trial against county

[n2doc]

By VANESSA HO, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Updated 08:08 p.m., Tuesday, August 30, 2011


In the winter of 1997, Imka Pope was 27 years old, homeless, off her medication and suffering a psychotic breakdown. She was also nine months pregnant. When she fell asleep on a Metro bus bench, she was arrested for trespassing and booked into jail.
There she spent six days in an isolated cell, where she gave birth alone - painfully, without medical help, and on the floor.

Fourteen years later, Pope's lawsuit against King County is finally going to trial next month. Pope, who suffers from a schizoaffective disorder, had taken 10 years to file the complaint, which alleges medical negligence and constitutional violations. A judge ruled this year that she had met a legal standard that stops the clock on the statute of limitations.

Lawyers for the woman say the case illustrates a history of poor medical care at the King County Jail. The downtown jail was the target of a blistering Department of Justice report in 2007, which found failures in medical assessment of inmates, suicide prevention and safeguards against jailer abuse.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Woman-who-gave-birth-on-jail-floor-goes-to-trial-2148417.php

[ZombieHorde]

1. Our judicial system is anti-human.

When you see a homeless, pregnant woman sleeping on a bus, is your first thought, "Get her! Make her suffer!" Apparently, that is what our judicial system thinks.

Fucking monsters.

[mopinko]

2. there just isn't anything else to do with mentally ill people

who become a problem of one sort or another. not sticking up for what happened. it is unconscionable. but saying that things are not much better today, and lots of people end up in jail just because no one knows what else to do with them.

[ZombieHorde]

3. There is in my town. We have emergency mental health centers.