A Michigan woman recently shared an experience that was nothing short of a nightmare for her, when she was forced to give birth on the floor of Macomb County Jail, in Mt Clemens, Michigan.
Inside Edition reports that Jessica Preston gave graphic and humiliating details of her time spent in jail while she was eight months pregnant. She was arrested for driving on a suspended license in 2016, but she couldn’t afford to make bond. Stuck behind bars, she couldn’t do anything but scream for help when she felt labor pains.
Surveillance video at the jail showed Preston asking not just once, but three times to be taken to the infirmary. Her requests were denied. According to Preston, they thought she was faking.
“They told me to knock my crap off, to stop lying to them, they could put another charge on me if I kept lying to them. I was scared. I was terrified — I was so worried for both of us that either one of us could catch something that would be life-threatening.”
Baby Elijah arrived weighing less than five pounds and without a doctor present. Although he’s almost a year old today and healthy, Preston was worried that the dirty jail floor and lack of professional medicine assistance would end up causing her baby to have serious medical conditions.
“When I was on the floor, like, ‘Please don’t let me have this baby in here. Please just call an ambulance. I pushed him out right on the floor.” “At this point, I was just in complete shock. I could not believe that it had just happened that way.”
The incident prompted a state official to request an investigation into Macomb County Jail. This isn’t the first time the jail has been in hot water over inmate treatment. In 2013, a mother behind bars for being late on child support became gravely ill. Deputies refused to take her to a hospital, despite other inmates begging them to get her medical help. Jennifer Meyers’ fever became extremely high as inmates helped cool her off with wet cloths. Twelve days, she was dead.
In 2014, a male inmate, David Stojcevski, died inside Macomb County Jail after a painful withdrawal from a physician-prescribed medication. In his 17 days spent in jail (for careless driving), Stojcevski lost 50 pounds. Surveillance footage captured him twitching and having seizures while the jail staff watched him.
Macomb County Jail is currently facing two federal lawsuits for depriving inmates of required medical care.
In the meantime, Preston will never forget the nightmare of having her child on a filthy jail floor. She wants her story known so that no one else has go through what she went through.
“I wouldn’t want that happening to my worst enemy, anybody else, and that’s why I am telling this story. I would never want it happening to anyone ever again.”
