Former Michigan inmate sues over alleged birth filming

Natalie Forrest, a formerly incarcerated woman, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging Michigan corrections officers used active body cameras to record her during medical exams, labor, childbirth and postpartum care at a hospital in March 2025. The complaint names five officers and three Michigan Department of Corrections officials, including its director and the warden of Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, and says the recordings captured her while undressed. It also alleges an officer threatened to extend Forrest’s sentence if her mother photographed the newborn. Forrest is seeking a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages; the department had not responded to a request for comment in one report.