Pregnant inmates struggle to gain entry to prison nursery programs.
New York State corrections officials reversed course and released more than 200 pages of documents detailing operations at a prison nursery program after claiming earlier that only a single page could in located in response to a New York World records request.
New York State correction officials don’t maintain basic information on the state’s own landmark prison nursery, including how many women have applied to the program or how long it took staff to review those applications.
The New York City Department of Correction has released data confirming that the Rikers Island jail nursery is little used and that upward of half of all applicants are denied entry.
Like many pregnant teens, Arisleida Duarte found herself struggling to figure out child care and parenting—but unlike most, she did it behind bars.
A New York World investigation has found that between 2010 and 2012 as many as a third of all applicants have been denied access to the nursery program even though the two nurseries operate at less than half capacity.
