A Louisiana prison guard has reportedly lost her job for taking in an incarcerated woman’s newborn baby for about two months while the mother finished her prison term.
The prison guard, Roberta Bell, offered to take in Katie Bourgeois’s newborn earlier this year, violating the rules against giving personal contact information to inmates at Louisiana’s Transition Center for Women, which holds people who are close to finishing their sentences.
Bell told the Washington Post that she thought she might get permission to look after the baby, which was born about seven weeks before Bourgeois finished her term this month.
“I was aware it would be seen as a conflict of interest, but I am a woman of my word,” Bell, 58, told the national news outlet. “I wanted to do the best thing for Katie and her child.”
Yet Bell’s supervisor at the privately funded facility did not see it that way.
Bell told the Post that the supervisor “said it sounded like a conflict of interest because I worked there, but that he’d talk to some people in charge”. Later, she was told that giving out her contact details was against the rules and was asked if she was going to go through with caring for the baby.
Having answered affirmatively, Bell was dismissed from her job on 17 May, the day before Bourgeois gave birth to a seven-pound boy.
Bourgeois, 30, who had been re-incarcerated for using drugs in violation of parole, told the Post that she’d “felt panicked”.
“I didn’t have anyone who would help, and I didn’t want my baby to get sent away with child protective services,” Bourgeois said. “I wasn’t sure what to do or where to turn.”
Bourgeois said she accepted Bell’s offer of help after hearing that Bell was “sweet and always kept her word”.
Bell said she sacrificed her job to maintain her promise to Bourgeois because she knew “it was the right thing to do”, according to the Post.
“When I asked Katie if she’d like me to come and get her baby when it was time, you could see the relief on her face,” she added. “She said, ‘Miss Bell, I’d love for you to take my baby, because I don’t have anyone else to do it.’”
According to a 2017 study by the Pregnancy in Prison Statistics Project, about 58,000 expectant mothers are incarcerated each year. Bell told the outlet that she knew that many of the women in the transition center have led hard lives.
“I found that if I showed them a little love, it went a long way” Bell said. “I sensed that Katie was a good person who had just made some bad choices in her life.”
Now released from prison, Bourgeois and the newborn, named Kayson, are staying with Bell until Bourgeois can find employment. She said that her dream is to start a group home for formerly incarcerated women.
An online GoFundMe campaign has been set up to benefit Bourgeois and Kayson.
“She and Kayson are welcome to stay here for as long as they need to,” Bell told the Post. “I’m excited for Katie and what the future holds for her.”
