Natalie Forrest sues Michigan corrections officials over recorded birth in Lansing
Natalie Forrest filed a federal lawsuit against Michigan prison officials over delivery room recordings in Lansing. The legal action challenges state corrections officers using active body cameras during labor and childbirth. The filing names state officials and several guards.
The civil complaint names the Michigan Department of Corrections along with five officers. MDOC Director Heidi Washington, Deputy Director Jeremy Bush and Huron Valley Warden Jeremy Howard are also named.
A male guard allegedly stood inside the hospital delivery room, according to the lawsuit. Forrest was undressed and in custody during cervical exams, labor and delivery.
Two officers wore active body cameras the entire time, according to a press release from Flood Law. The firm filed the lawsuit this week.
Flood Law says agency leadership received written warnings 17 days earlier about recording undressed women. The firm says leadership was told the practice violates Michigan voyeurism law. State officials defended the practice instead of ending it, according to the firm.
“The humiliation did not end with the delivery. When Ms. Forrest’s mother tried to photograph her newborn grandson, an officer walked in and warned her that a single picture would cost her daughter two more years in prison,” the law firm’s press release said.
No photo was taken at that time. Guards allegedly intervened immediately.
“There is no policy, no security concern and no circumstance that justifies a male guard watching a woman give birth, undressed, in a hospital bed. No reasonable corrections system would permit it, and MDOC did,” said Todd F. Flood, attorney for the family, per the news release.
The state agency runs correctional facilities and oversees inmates who require medical treatment in Lansing hospitals. Federal civil rights lawsuits seek legal remedies when individuals claim government employees violated protections.
The agency did not provide an immediate response. The legal process remains ongoing in Lansing.
