Abigail Attix was serving her time in prison when she listened to the emotional experiences her fellow pregnant inmates went through in the incarceration system.
“It was really difficult for them being away from their kids in prison,” she said. “Some of them didn’t know if they would get their kids back or where they were going.”
Attix spoke with her mom, Susan Henson, about the conflicts inmates with children experience, and Henson decided to do something about it. Henson founded Pharaoh's Daughter in 2011 as a nonprofit that cares for babies of incarcerated women until they are released from prison. The program teaches the mothers how to care for their child and plan for the future, Henson said.
It's estimated that 4 percent of women incarcerated in state prisons across the country are pregnant, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Henson was further inspired to found the nonprofit when she discovered that in North Carolina, incarcerated pregnant mothers have only two choices.
“One of which is foster care with the Department of Social Services, and under that, you sort of relinquish your parental right, that child becomes a ward of the state and then the child may or may not be there when you get back,” she said. “The other choice is to go to a relative, which in many, many cases is not a safe place either.”
Pharaoh's Daughter takes the babies to see their mothers every week and regularly send mothers pictures of their child. She said there’s a primary prison in the state that pregnant women are sent to: the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women in Raleigh.
“They have my personal cell phone so they can call me at any time to hear their baby, talk to their baby, know the latest milestones that are happening that day or that week, if they’re particularly worried,” she said. “They just have that instant ‘pick up the phone’ and make sure everything is okay.”
Henson holds the organization at her home and is with the babies 24/7.
