and a mentally ill and pregnant woman
forced to give birth alone in an
isolated jail cell in Broward County and
her cries for help ignored this all
started as I'll leave it to Lehren
investigation and now the Broward public
defender's office is getting involved
Larenz in the newsroom with the
disturbing details Laurie Calvin the
Broward public defender's office told me
today they had no idea this had even
happened until I called them and asked
questions about it and neither did this
inmates mother this child's grandmother
until we went knocking on her door
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Shirley Nixon needed a minute and who
could blame her she says the last time
she'd seen her daughter 34 year old
Tammy Jackson was in court earlier this
month
just days after Tammy gave birth to her
third child Nixon sent me these photos
taken up to hospital where she's first
held her granddaughter
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well were they she says she wasn't
allowed to see Tammy because Tammy was
still under arrest and trying to help
her daughter deal with bipolar
schizophrenia drug addiction and
homelessness Tammy was several months
pregnant when she was arrested earlier
this year held at the North Broward
Bureau in Pompano Beach on a number of
trespassing and drug possession charges
this incident report details what
happened inside that facility the
morning of April 10th an officer in the
jail reports seeing Tammy and is o8
squatting and screaming in pain the
officer notes calling for a nurse the
report goes on to say I heard a baby
crying as I approached the cell Tammy
was standing with a baby in her arms I
immediately helped Tammy wrap the baby
with a towel we read that report to
Tammy's mother
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the report notes how doctors and nurses
eventually went inside the cell 210 to
tan and her baby one of the nurses
completed an urgent care record form and
stated pregnant female had a spontaneous
delivery and no injuries noted medics
later rushed Tammy and her baby to the
hospital if this went a drastically
different way and that child would have
expired or died you know we would have
had a completely different situation
Gordon weeks is the executive chief
assistant Broward County Public Defender
and says in 20 years she's never heard
of an incident like this from four
o'clock that morning she had noted that
she has started having contractions
it wasn't until 10 o'clock that morning
that the baby was delivered and it's
totally inappropriate that they allowed
that to happen when they are in the
position to safeguard not only our
safety but our health and the well-being
of her child after we contacted them for
our investigation the public defender
sent this letter to the sheriff
demanding an immediate review of medical
and isolation practices calling it
inhumane outrageous and unconscionable
the Broward Sheriff's Office tells us
its internal affairs division is
reviewing the incident to determine the
next course of action
and little Miranda was born at term and
the Sheriff's Office says she's been
properly placed we've also spoken with
other pregnant women who were inmates
when this incident happened and it's not
the only one that gave them concern and
we'll be sharing more on what else they
witnessed soon we're also still waiting
to hear from well Pat those are the
folks charged with handling inmate
medical care
Tammy Jackson remains in a hospital
undergoing mental evaluation
Laurie Calvin Larrin no words and
perhaps not for you we would never have
known our landlords to put our new