Lawsuit: Jackson County jail guards forced shackled pregnant woman to travel 200 miles while in labor

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The Jackson County Department of Corrections and its overworked and underpaid jail guards are the subject of a new lawsuit brought by a former inmate.

Megon Riedel, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, claims that jail guards — despite being warned by Truman Medical Center physicians that Riedel was in a high-risk pregnancy and that active labor was imminent — forced her to get in a van and travel from Kansas City to a corrections facility in Vandalia, Missouri. That’s a 192-mile trip. 

During the trip, Riedel “experienced frequent contractions, continued to bleed vaginally, and vomited in the van,” according to the lawsuit. 

When Riedel arrived in Vandalia, according to the lawsuit, she was asked to strip for an examination, at which point a staff member exclaimed, “Are you fucking serious?” Riedel was then rushed to the hospital. 

The Jackson County Detention Center staff “failed to inform WERDCC [Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center] staff that [Riedel] was being transported while in labor, that she was 39 weeks pregnant, that she had a high-risk pregnancy, and that she had been at the hospital twice in less than twenty-four hours.” The names of the JCDC guards are not identified in the lawsuit.

“As shocking as Megon’s treatment is, this indifference to a person in medical distress is not isolated,” says Jeffrey A. Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri. “As Missourians, we need to decide if we will tolerate this behavior from those who run our jails and prisons. The ACLU is prepared to hold them accountable.”

This is not the only scent of trouble wafting from the JCDC. In July, an inmate was taken to Truman Medical Center with breathing problems and broken bones. A subsequent investigation found that he had likely been roughed up by JCDC guards. The FBI and the county are investigating that and other potential instances of inmate abuse. 

Riedel’s complaint can be read in full here.