First-of-its-kind law keeps incarcerated moms with babies in Minnesota

A first-in-the-nation law will keep incarcerated women with their babies by allowing for conditional release after they give birth. Gov. Tim Walz recently signed the Healthy Start Act, saying the historic bill does what’s right for mothers and their children.

It’s legislation Jennifer Brown advocated for, understanding the pain of separation.

“I went into prison when I was about four months pregnant,” Brown said. “It was difficult. There was the fear of, for one, I didn’t know what I was going to do or what was going to happen to him.”

Through a parenting coordinator at Minnesota Corrections Facility-Shakopee, she was able to connect with a faith-based organization that located a family to care for her son after she gave birth. Elijah was born via cesarean section in March 2020.

“I had to go back into prison and then hand over Elijah to a family that I didn’t even know,” she said. “It was six and a half months that I didn’t get to see him, and so it was very hard.”

Due to COVID, visits weren’t allowed. She relied on pictures from the family caring for Elijah.

Brown left prison through a work-release program in July 2020.

“It provided that extra support that I needed when I transitioned back into the community and my number one goal was to do whatever it takes to get Elijah back,” she said. “I was working 45 hours a week doing the carpenters’ (union job) and 12 hour days Saturdays and Sundays as a server, and my goal was, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes.’”

In October, they were finally reunited.

“The transition was pretty hard,” she said. “He didn’t even want to come towards me because he didn’t know me so it was a bit difficult.”

They’ve been able to bond over the last eight months. Brown has celebrated milestones including Elijah’s first steps and his first words.

She hopes the Healthy Start Act will give other mothers the moments she missed.

“I think that this bill is amazing,” Brown said. “It’s going to make a lot of differences and change people’s lives.”

The act allows the Department of Corrections commissioner to conditionally release an inmate for the duration of their pregnancy and up to one year after giving birth, keeping mothers and babies together during critical bonding time.

It was championed by a coalition of both DFL and Republican women lawmakers. It passed with bipartisan support in the House and Senate.

“It’s a precedent-setting law,”DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said. “Adverse childhood experiences we know have a lot to do with the future outcomes for young people so there was a desire to say what can we do?”

He said this has been on their radar for about a year and a half, describing how lawmakers and DOC staff talked to women at Shakopee.

“It was heart wrenching, they’d be giving birth in many cases with officers present in the birthing room,” Schnell said. “The babies are taken and separated. The moms are kept in the hospital for a very short period of time and brought back to the correctional facility, they have to undergo the full kind of search protocols and these are really highly intrusive situations. Then, you know, all of the post-partum issues that can happen to moms in general and then add the fact that your baby was taken from you.”

The act will allow Commissioner Schnell to release pregnant women or new mothers into community-based programs, with an emphasis on prenatal and postnatal care, parenting, employment, or chemical dependency or mental health treatment.

“What the bill really requires is that we come up with alternative settings for them to both live, have some level of supervision and really critically support (them)” Schnell said. “We want to make sure these young moms themselves along with their babies have the best chance for success."

According to Schnell, eight to 20 pregnant women enter the prison system each year. About 80% of those mothers are with the DOC for a year or less.

“We’ve heard people say how many women get pregnant to avoid having to go to prison? You know there is just no evidence to support that. Look at the length of incarceration for the vast majority,” he said. “The other thing I would point out is the vast majority of them are also release violators or probation violators.”

He said they will consider public safety and an infant’s safety when granting condition release.

Brown told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS she’s seen first-hand the positive outcomes of community-based programs.

“Our mistakes don’t define who we are,” she said. “With the right support, provided with the right resources, programs like this will help prosper these mothers and be there for their children.”