LANSING — Michigan corrections officers wearing body cameras, including at least one male officer, recorded an unclothed female inmate during childbirth at a hospital near Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday, Oct. 12.
The lawsuit alleges that the body cameras captured video of both Natalie Forrest and her newborn son with their genitals exposed during and after the birth of her son at Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital on March 6, 2025, before Forrest was returned to the women's prison near Ypsilanti.
The incident happened after Michigan Department of Corrections officials had been warned in February 2025 that body cameras were capturing images of unclothed inmates even when the cameras had been set
to "passive" mode, but before MDOC Director Heidi Washington issued a revised body camera policy on March 24, 2025 requiring body cameras to be placed in "sleep" mode during strip searches and at other times when undressed inmates could be recorded, the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges.
"There is no policy, no security concern, and no circumstance that justifies a male guard watching a woman give birth, undressed, in a hospital bed," Detroit attorney Todd Flood, who represents Forrest's family, said in a news release.
"No reasonable corrections system would permit it — and MDOC did."
Flood said in the news release that at the time Forrest gave birth, MDOC officials were on notice that video recording undressed women could be a felony under Michigan's voyeurism law.
A spokeswoman for the MDOC did not immediately respond to an Oct. 12 email seeking comment.
Conditions at the state's only prison for women have been under scrutiny amid a spike in recent sudden deaths there.
Flood said the invasion of privacy was made worse when Forrest's mother, who was present for the birth, asked to take a photo of her newborn grandson and was told by an officer that to do so would cost her daughter another two years in prison.
The suit alleges violation of the federal and state privacy rights of Forrest and her child, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violation of the First Amendment rights of Forrest's mother, in denying her request to photograph her grandson. It seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Before changing its policy on how officer body cameras can be used, the MDOC had defended the cameras being set to "passive" mode during strip searches, saying video shot in passive mode was collected as raw data that could not be viewed unless intentionally extracted for a specific permitted purpose within 18 hours, after which it would be overwritten.
In the face of criticism, Washington later amended the policy to have the cameras switched to "sleep" mode whenever a reasonable expectation of privacy exists.
Forrest, who was serving time for a nonviolent drug offense at the time she gave birth, was released on parole on Dec. 11, 2025, according to the lawsuit.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lawsuit alleges MDOC officers took video of inmate during childbirth
