SALINAS, Calif.- Put my daughter in jail now. That's how far a Central Coast mother is willing to go to save her child and the grandchild about to be born.
Thursday, the Center for Investigative Action went to work to get lawmakers to listen to a grandmother's plea as she fights to change the system and maybe save a life.
Kathy Lester pulls out old pictures of her daughter alissa and spreads them in front of central coast assemblyman bill monning's legislative director.
"This is why I'm here."
It's been a long road to Sacramento for Kathy. This is her last straw. A last ditch effort to save her daughter Alissa .
"It's just a nightmare, it's all a nightmare. I can't do anything."
Alissa is 23 years old, a heroin addict and she's pregnant.
"I have a daughter who's strung out on drugs, she's six months pregnant and she's roaming Soledad Street."
Kathy has been up and down these streets plenty, the local skid row. The place Kathy comes to find her daughter, "In those times when she would go missing for like two weeks and I thought she was dead, I would come up to anybody and I had pictures."
When Alissa was a teen and started getting into trouble, Kathy turned to the justice system for help.
"Fortunately, I got her to be a ward of the court."
It kept her on the straight and narrow for a bit, but as an adult Kathy couldn't rely on the justice system. She watched her daughter give birth once and lose custody of that baby. This is the last picture she has of her daughter and that grandchild together.
Now Alissa is pregnant again. Can't stay clean. And this grandmother is helpless, "...Until you are in rehab, I'm going to be calling the police everyday."
So, she is taking her fight to lawmakers.
"They would be ordered under the drug court to either jail or a court ordered women's facility until which time that child is properly cared for."
According to the ACLU in the last 20 years, seven states have tried to create a new and separate crime of drug use during pregnancy. None have passed. But there is a law in Florida called the Marchman Act. It allows familymembers to commit loved-ones to court-ordered drug treatment.
"The baby is not getting the care and monitoring it needs while shes pregnant, I'm worried about the long term effects the baby will have when he's born," said Kathy.
Dr. Valerie Barnes started the neo-natal intensive care unit at Natividad Medical Center, and sees the effects of drugs on newborns first hand and that number isn't small. Twelve percent of the babies in Monterey County are born with drugs in their system.
"These babies are damaged, and then they're brains are damaged also."
Dr. Barnes agrees in most cases, pregnant addicts are too sick to get drug treatment themselves, "Incarcerate them into these rehabs and make them stay there and they can really turn their lives around and make a difference to the lives of both the children and themselves...They need to be forced into treatment."
There are many in the health industry who argue forcing people into treatment is not the best route.
"A pregnant mom avoids prenatal care because they worry about either going to jail or having their children taken away from them," although Monterey County Director of Social Services Elliot Robinson admits 70-80% of the families CPS is currently working with have drug issues, he said punishment isn't always the answer.
"We don't want to put in place a system where a mom becomes avoidant of prenatal care, but if you aren't also looking forward and saying how do we change this for the future then we've really done nothing," said Robinson.
That brings us back to sacramento.
When Kathy came to us with her situation we helped her secure a meeting with Assemblyman Bill Monning's legislative director Bethany Westfall.
Kathy wants to see a law like the Marchman Act come to California, helping families get loved ones into court-ordered and monitored treatment, and have rights to help protect their children.
"I'm up against a pretty big mountain."
Kathy said the legislative director told her to look at Laura's law. It was passed in 2002 allowing judges to order involuntary treatment for people with mental illness. Now, Kathy can work to change the law so it includes drug-use as an element of mental illness.
Kathy knows she has a lot of work to get started on.
"...Do a lot of research, which I've done quite a bit already...I welcome anyone to get in on this with me."
Some local help for voluntary drug treatment: http://www.doortohope.org/dth/intro.html
http://www.janussc.org/
