{"id":301523,"date":"2023-11-14T10:37:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T16:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=301523"},"modified":"2023-11-14T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T14:44:51","slug":"corrections-officer-fired-care-prisoners-newborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/corrections-officer-fired-care-prisoners-newborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Corrections officer fired after agreeing to care for prisoner’s newborn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A correctional officer in Louisiana has been fired from her job after she agreed to take care of a prisoner’s newborn baby.<\/p>\n

Roberta Bell, a 58-year-old grandmother who is raising five of her eight grandchildren, was working at the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women when she learned of a prisoner who was pregnant and in need of help. Bell, who had taken the job to be closer to her parents, also saw it as an opportunity to do God’s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod had already tried to put on my heart to minister to women and to get them to know and start serving Christ,\u201d she said. \u201cDoing the right thing instead of doing the wrong thing. Once I got hired and I started working over there, I was ministering to the young ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pregnant prisoner, Katie Bourgeois, was going to give birth before her sentence ended and was worried that after giving birth she wouldn’t see her baby again. After having already lost custody of her daughter, Bourgeois didn’t want to risk losing her soon-to-be-born baby boy too.<\/p>\n

Bourgeois was due to give birth about two months before her scheduled release. According to Mississippi Today<\/a>, Bourgeois had no family members who were able to care for her son and reached out to other women at the prison for advice. Together, they determined “Mama Bell” would be the best choice to care for Bourgeois’ baby.<\/p>\n