Two clients represented by The Legal Aid Society have come forward to describe their experiences of being pregnant in New York City jails during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The stories detail the squalid conditions that expecting mothers must endure behind bars, made all the more dangerous by the risk of infection that soared through the prison system due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Legal Aid and other defender organizations continue to assail city and state governments to release pregnant women – as well as others suffering from medical conditions – from detention to prevent the virus from unnecessarily putting more lives at risk.

“It’s insane,” writes Candace, a 31-year-old who was released on parole from Bedford Hills last week, told The Cut. “We should have all been able to walk out of those prison doors together. We all make mistakes, but these women are genuine. All they’re worried about is their kids.”

“After I gave birth, on Mother’s Day, I was quarantined in a trailer by myself with my newborn daughter, Halley. It was nerve-wracking,” our client Patricia tells The New Republic. “All of these different officers are coming into the trailer, not always keeping the six feet social distance, especially when they’re checking on my daughter. There were definitely times when I told them that they had to back up.”