PREGNANCY, DRUG ABUSE AND JAIL STIR EMOTIONS

Salt Lake County: The Lockup Wanted To Turn Away A Suspect To Avoid
Any Legal Risk; A Judge Just Wants What's Best For Baby

Tammaria Gehring is more than eight months pregnant. Until Sept. 22,
when she was locked up in the Salt Lake County Jail, the 30-year-old
mother of two was living in a motel room and using methamphetamine.

Were it not for a judge who personally lobbied Salt Lake County
Sheriff Aaron Kennard to book her - against Kennard's strict policy
not to book pregnant women - Gehring would still be out, possibly
doing drugs, despite a felony drug charge and violations of her
pre-sentencing release.

Those in the criminal justice system who handle cases such as this
say there is little they can do to stop pregnant women from using
drugs and risking the health of the unborn children.

Third District Judge Terry Christiansen said he cannot court order
inpatient drug treatment programs for such women until they have been
sentenced. Even when they test positive for drugs, a violation the
terms of their pre-sentencing release, the judge can't get them
jailed because the sheriff will turn them away.

While jails are revolving doors for drug addicts, the Salt Lake
County jail refused to let Gehring in the door on more than one
occasion when it found out she was pregnant and at high risk for complications.

Kennard said pregnant women who abuse drugs are a legal and financial
liability to the jail.

"She was not [initially] admitted because of medical reasons,"
Kennard said. "Being a high-risk pregnancy, this is not something the
jail is prepared to handle."

The sheriff said a high-risk pregnancy that ends badly could
"bankrupt" the county.

"It's not my responsibility to medically take care of everyone."

But the judge did not want Gehring to walk. Two lives were at stake.

"Every time I get a situation where a woman is pregnant and she is
using drugs I do everything I possibly can so that baby is
protected," Christiansen said. "I understand the sheriff has some
liability issues, but my concern is for the child."

So Christiansen called the sheriff - something he has done in a
handful of cases - and asked Kennard to make an exception. The sheriff obliged.

"It's a stop-gap measure," Kennard said. "What probably is going to
happen is the woman is going to have her baby in my jail and the
county residents are going to pay for all of this. I'm not going to
stand in the way of the health of that woman or that baby."

Right now, the jail's acute medical center is not open and not
funded, Kennard said. Those people who have high-risk medical
conditions, or are a danger to themselves or others, are turned away
at the door and taken by the arresting agency to a hospital.

Christine Wilfahrt, Gehring's mother, said her daughter started using
drugs at age 16. Five months into her second pregnancy, Gehring
didn't know she was carrying a baby until she went to a doctor for a
kidney infection. She also tested positive for meth.

The baby boy, now 13 months old, was adopted by Gehring's brother.

Gehring's life spun out of control when her live-in boyfriend
introduced her to meth, Wilfahrt said. She lost her job and house and
began sleeping at motels. She told her 12-year-old son she was seeing ghosts.

When Wilfahrt discovered her daughter was pregnant again, she worked
frantically to find her help.

"I can't be the only one in the Salt Lake Valley who has been trying
and trying and trying to stop this from occurring on a continual
basis," she said.

In Utah, cases such as Gehring's are becoming more common. In 2003,
about 6,800 women were admitted to public drug treatment programs in
the state. Of those, 300 were pregnant at the time, said Patrick
Fleming, director of Salt Lake County's Division of Substance Abuse Services.

Pregnant users are high priority for public treatment programs, he
said. Despite long waiting lists, Gehring could be admitted today.
The problem: She is free to walk right out the door.

And many do.

On a Friday in mid-October, Ed Snoddy, a substance abuse counselor
for the Volunteers of America, was called to a Salt Lake City home to
aid police with a woman high on heroin and seven-and-a-half months pregnant.

The woman has spent time living on the streets and Snoddy, a trusted
friend of many of the city's homeless, knows her well. He has tried
persuading her to seek treatment by warning her of the harm she is
doing to her baby, but to no avail.

Before he could get her into treatment, she fled. Even if she had
checked into the Volunteers program, Snoddy doubts she would have stayed.

The woman can be charged with child endangerment at birth, but until
then, there is little that can be done legally. "If we wait until the
baby is born, the damage is done," Snoddy said.

Fleming said addressing the problem is a prickly public policy issue.

"We as a society have criminalized substance abuse, so what winds up
happening is it has become a problem we've tried to deal with through
the courts, through the jail, through the public treatment system."

Pregnant women who need help often fail to seek it because they fear
they will be arrested, or their children taken away.

"Until we destigmatize and decriminalize this and make it a health
issue, this is going to continue going on," he said.

In the meantime, Wilfahrt hopes the judge keeps her daughter behind
bars - and out of methamphetamine's reach.

"She is not only hurting herself, she's hurting a life. The life of
that baby should override her personal rights," Wilfahrt said. "I
hope to God he brings that baby out right."