A number of women in Alabama accused of using drugs while pregnant were held in a jailhouse for weeks or months, left in limbo after failing to qualify for special bond conditions, according to a Wednesday report from AL.com. After she was arrested for carrying a small amount of marijuana and a firearm without a permit, 23-year-old Ashley Banks was brought to the Etowah County Jail. Having admitted to smoking pot on the same day she found out she was pregnant, Banks languished in the jail for months, with overcrowding forcing her to sleep on the floor despite a high-risk pregnancy. In order to bond out, Banks was told she would have to enter drug rehab—but specialists who evaluated her found twice that she didn’t qualify for drug addiction services. State investigators pressured her to confess to a nonexistent addiction; when she wouldn’t, she was left “incarcerated indefinitely,” according to Banks’ petition for release. An Etowah County judge released her to community corrections on Aug. 25. There have been more than 150 similar “chemical endangerment” cases in Etowah County since 2010, according to National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
