Woman recounts giving birth alone in jail

Kari Parsons said she can still hear her own screams when she sleeps, days after she delivered a baby alone in a county jail cell.

The 25-year-old Pasadena woman, jailed after testing positive for drugs while on probation for theft, said officials at the Jennifer Road Detention Center repeatedly ignored her pleas that she was well into labor and needed to go to the hospital. Instead, they took her out of a holding area with other inmates, who helped to time her contractions, and put her in a cell by herself.

"I was screaming so much my whole body was trembling. Everyone could hear it," Ms. Parsons said. "I was screaming and...