Before I went to jail in 2019, I was struggling. I was homeless and dealing with my drug addiction while living in Plano, Texas. So when I got pregnant, I knew things needed to change. I wanted better for my baby.

Seventeen years prior, I had given a baby up for adoption, and I still had the agency’s card in my wallet. So I gave them a call and told them I was pregnant and stuck in a toxic environment. I asked the woman on the phone if she would help me find a family that would care for my baby and help me get out of my bad situation. She said yes.

Almost immediately, the agency put me up in a long-term hotel in Dallas, Texas. They found a family who wanted a baby. And they helped me schedule my first doctor’s appointment. For the first time in a long time, I had a plan in place. I was sober.

Over a month into my new arrangement, I went back to Plano to get my bicycle. I’d left it in front of a friend’s house. I didn’t have a car, and I thought a bike would help me get around. Even though I was only three and a half months pregnant, it was a struggle to ride the bike. So I walked it along the side of the road.

That’s when the cops stopped me. They asked for my ID. It turns out, I had a warrant out for my arrest for using a credit card that I found in a parking lot of a grocery store when I was homeless. I used it to buy groceries.

The cops took me straight to Collin County Jail in McKinney, Texas. I was just a few days shy of seeing my doctor for the first time to make sure everything was OK with my pregnancy.

Read the full article about prenatal care in prison by Lauren Kent at The Marshall Project.