Former Mississippi corrections officer has no regrets after being fired for caring for inmate's baby
Roberta Bell is the kind of woman who wears her heart on her sleeve, who would give it away in a heartbeat.
The 58-year-old lives in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and is raising five of her eight grandchildren. Earlier this year, there was another child who needed her care.
"There was an inmate that needed assistance, some help. She was pregnant," Bell said.
Bell, a correctional officer at the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women, met Katie Bourgeois, who had about two months left on her sentence — but was about to give birth. Bell said there wasn't anyone in Bourgeois' family who could get the newborn, and that she was looking for someone who could care for the baby until she was released. Bourgeois asked Bell if she would take in the baby, and Bell agreed.
Bell said she alerted her supervisor to the situation. She said that he warned her that it was a conflict of interest, but later asked her if she was still planning on caring for the baby.
"I said, if the hospital calls me to come get that baby, I'm going to get that baby," Bell said. "And he said, 'Well, OK, I'm going to have to terminate you.'"
The way Bell sees it, the prison gave her a blessing. One week after she was fired, she got the call that Bourgeois' baby boy had been born. She went straight to the hospital, where Bourgeois had named the child Kayson - a name that he shares with one of Bell's grandchildren.
"I started taking pictures, I started snapping pictures," said Bell. "He was so precious. I put his clothes and stuff on him and I held him for a little while. They buckled him into a car seat, and we left and we came home. ... For two months I raised him. I loved him as he was my own, and I still love him today."
Bell cared for Kayson until Bourgeois was released on the 4th of July. She went straight to Bell's home to get her child.
"She was kind of, you know, a little nervous because he didn't really know her and she says 'He's crying, Ms. Bell,' and I said, 'Well baby,' I say, 'He's got to get used to you,'" Bell said. CBS News reported that Bourgeois' child is now in foster care, and doing well there.
As word of Bell's actions spread, her living room became loaded with diapers and baby formula. Overall, people donated $90,000 to Bell, who took a job sorting cans at a food distributor after being fired. Bell used part of that money to help another pregnant inmate, paying for the inmate's mother to travel to the hospital when she gave birth.
"God provided so much stuff," Bell said. "People came by, agencies called. It (was) just overwhelming, because I couldn't do it by myself. That was part of my ministry that I'm getting ready to start."
• Meet the man who grew up in foster care — and adopted 5 siblings
Now, Bell is creating the "Serenity House," a home in rural Mississippi that she is remodeling and plans to make a transitional home for women leaving prison. Bell said that it's just another way to continue the work she was doing at the prison, where she loved being able to talk to inmates and encourage them to change their lives.
"I'm hoping it'll be ready before the first of the year," she said, "because them ladies calling me."
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- Incarceration
David Begnaud is the lead national correspondent for "CBS Mornings" based in New York City.
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