Autumn Mason with her children King, from left, 7, Reality, 2, and Reign, 4. Mason was pregnant with her third child when she struck and killed a motorcyclist in St. Paul, then fled the scene. Mason spent the next two years incarcerated for vehicular homicide, forcing her to deliver her child while at Shakopee women's prison. When she arrived in prison in 2014, decades-old policies governed the treatment of pregnant inmates. She was shackled after childbirth and not allowed to pump her milk after breastfeeding her daughter in the hospital. But her experience has helped shape new policies over the last two years to address the rapidly growing number of female offenders, some of whom are pregnant when they enter prison. Now the women can receive a doula (birth coach), parenting courses and a breast pump to maintain milk production, and shackling is no longer allowed. Advocates argue those are overdue steps toward promoting healthy pregnancies and births, which save taxpayers money and build a foundation for babies who are innocent of their mother's crimes.
