As more women fill America’s jails, medical tragedies mount

By the time anyone at the Milwaukee County Jail noticed Shade Swayzer had given birth alone in a filthy cell, her baby was dead.

Swayzer had arrived a week earlier, on July 6, 2016, picked up after a dispute with a hotel clerk and charged with disorderly conduct and a parole violation from an old burglary conviction. She was clearly pregnant, just a few weeks from her due date, and police had her evaluated at a hospital before bringing her to jail. The fetus was deemed active and healthy, and...