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ACLU: Pregnant probationers can't be singled out

Lawrence Gist has a notable piece on a friend of the court brief submitted to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by the ACLU regarding whether pregnant probationers whose urinalysis tests positive for drug use can be singled out for harsher punishment because of their medical condition:The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case involving the unfair incarceration of a pregnant woman who violated her probation. The ACLU asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm a lower court ruling that probation officers treated the woman, Amber Lovill, differently from others who violated probation but were not pregnant. "Our criminal justice system cannot treat pregnant women more harshly than other people convicted of similar crimes simply because they are pregnant," said Diana Kasdan, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).