It could have had an unhappy ending - a pregnant mother locked up in jail because she took the rap for her boyfriend on a weapons charge. But there is no sad ending in Sabrina Eiley's story. The 21-year-old prisoner became a mother on Tuesday and the room that her newborn baby is calling home might surprise you. Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
21-year-old Sabrina Eiley has named her new baby girl destiny. And perhaps that is the perfect name because Sabrina isn't your typical mother. She is an inmate at Hattieville Prison. She was already in jail when she discovered she was pregnant.
Sabrina Eiley, Prison Inmates
"When I reached jail, I didn't know I was pregnant and I found out like in a month and a half that I was pregnant."
Eight months later Sabrina delivered baby destiny. It's a child she didn't think she would be able to keep but she did. How? Well cell 19 used to be Sabrina's jail cell but it looks more like a nursery. It has been retrofitted, reformed, and furnished with a baby crib, bathroom, and all the accommodations for a new mom and her baby.
Sabrina Eiley,
"It feels good and it made me just slow down a lot and I think about
life in a different aspect."
Keith Swift,
How has your jail cell changed?
Sabrina Eiley,
"I didn't expect it to be set up like this. When I left it looked different; like so many beds were in it, like different beds, and when I came back everything else changed."
Keith Swift,
Did you think you would have been able to keep your child while you're in here?
Sabrina Eiley,
[Sobbing.] "This is just a part of life and you have accept things the way they go. It would have been worse if I had to give up my baby at this stage because is my first baby and I thank God I got this opportunity."
The decision to allow Sabrina to keep her newborn was made by the Kolbe Foundation. Bernadine Reid is a facilitator at Kolbe and she explained why they made the decision.
Bernadine Reid, Facilitator - Kolbe
"Sabrina has nobody to help her to take of the baby and since she has more time to do, we decided that instead of making the baby go to a foster home or something like that, where she doesn't know if she will get back her child, decided that we were going to help her as a team. Everybody here has been very very helpful, very supportive. She is more like a daughter to us so we now have like a granddaughter.
Apart from the other rehabilitation that we have here at Kolbe, that is one of the things to show that when you come behind here, its not the end of the world and people do care about you and Sabina is one of the persons that has found that this is not the end of the world."
And though she is in prison with her baby - Sabrina doesn't plan on staying here much longer. She hopes that with the possibility of parole - she will be able to make a life for her and destiny outside these prison walls.
Sabrina Eiley,
"I am supposed to come out soon on parole so I just need to let my baby be with me, she needs breast feed and everything so...."
And interesting note is that Sabrina told us the father of her child doesn't show she was pregnant. Well, as of tonight, we're sure he does. On Friday Sabrina Eiley was presented with a hamper from Santiago Castillo Limited.
