Alabama jail staff didn’t help when she went into labor — other inmates did, lawsuit says

In a state with a long history of arresting pregnant women, one mom in custody says she was left to fend for herself.

Three days after Tiffany McElroy was taken to an Alabama jail just north of the Florida state line, she felt her water break.

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Her baby was coming several weeks early, and McElroy, 26, would later learn she was experiencing a pregnancy complication that could deteriorate into sepsis. She told a guard that her water had broken, expecting her to call an ambulance or take her to a hospital.

Instead, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Alabama, another guard who checked on her that morning in May 2024 accused her of urinating on herself and told her to go back to her cell. Over the next 24 hours, the complaint alleges, McElroy was at the mercy of jail staff members who failed to call 911 as other inmates beat their cell windows and tables, begging for help.