Leslie spent her time in jail on a mattress on the floor in the day room because there were no cells available. Four months pregnant, she spent one agonizing day there withdrawing from opioids before she had a seizure and had to be rushed to the emergency room.
“They knew I was pregnant when I was being arrested because the officer threatened to throw me on the ground, and I told him, ‘Please, I’m 16 weeks pregnant — don’t,’” Leslie, who is using her first name only for privacy reasons, told Salon in a phone interview. “I told the officers … that I would be going through withdrawals, and I was already going through withdrawals when I was arrested.”
