The state will have a Maternity Home within the Prison System.

By Tertuliano Filho

The Secretary of State for Justice of Piauí, Daniel Oliveira, met, this Thursday (02), with the Secretary of State for Health, Francisco Costa, as well as technicians from both secretariats, to discuss the project for the creation and construction of the Pregnant Women's House in the Prison System. The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Health Secretariat.

Following the model of the Maternity Home, which already provides services in partnership with the Dona Evangelina Rosa Maternity Hospital in Teresina, the Maternity Home in the Prison System will serve pregnant and/or postpartum women deprived of their liberty. The goal is to humanize healthcare services for these women, guaranteeing respect for their human rights.

“Our goal is to ensure that mother and baby can have a relationship, during pregnancy and breastfeeding, in a higher quality, healthier and more humane environment, even if that mother is complying with the security rules of the prison system,” explains the Secretary of Justice, Daniel Oliveira.

The Maternity Home within the Prison System is a directive from Governor Wellington Dias and a pioneering policy in Piauí. During the meeting, the Health Secretariat provided guidance to the technical team of the Justice Secretariat (Sejus) for the finalization of the architectural and engineering project, so that the Sejus bidding committee can make the construction of the unit feasible.

According to the Secretary of Health, the project will be presented by the governor to Minister Carmen Lúcia, president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), to be defended as a national policy. "This is the goal of the partnership between Health and Justice, this pioneering project, to provide qualified, humane care to women deprived of their liberty," emphasizes Francisco Costa.
 
The area for the construction of the first Maternity Home in the Prison System has already been designated by Sejus and is located in the southern zone of Teresina, near the maternity hospital in the Promorar neighborhood. On that occasion, Secretary Daniel Oliveira highlighted successful partnerships between the two secretariats.

“Here, we strengthened cooperation with the Health Secretariat in providing medication for the prison system and also ensuring other partnerships involving the National Policy for Prison Health Care and the care of psychiatric patients who were in the system. Today, these people have either been rehabilitated and are with their respective families or are in state therapeutic residences,” Oliveira concludes.