DETROIT — A woman who said she was recorded by Michigan Department of Corrections officers while giving birth has filed a lawsuit against the department, alleging the recordings of her in labor and undressed violated state law.

Seventeen days before Natalie Forrest, who was an inmate at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility, gave birth in March 2025 at Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital, MDOC leadership was warned in writing that recording undressed women violates Michigan's felony voyeurism law.

But the policy was not changed until weeks later, and several corrections officers recorded Forrest while she was unclothed during active labor, childbirth and during postpartum care, according to a lawsuit Forrest filed in federal court Oct. 8.

In February 2025, Deputy Director of the American Friends Service Committee Peter Martel wrote a letter to MDOC telling them corrections officers were unconstitutionally recording strip searches with their body-worn cameras and were violating Michigan law while doing so.

MDOC didn't respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Heidi Washington, the agency's director, did not change the recording policy until March 24, 2025, when she ordered body cameras be placed on sleep mode during routine strip searches.

During her son's March 6 birth, Forrest contends her genitals, buttocks and breasts were exposed while corrections officers' body cameras recorded her, according to the lawsuit. Her son's genitals and buttocks were also recorded.

“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. No reasonable corrections system would permit it — and MDOC did,” said attorney Todd Flood. “Leadership was told in writing that recording undressed women was a felony. Seventeen days later, Natalie Forrest gave birth with a male officer in the room and cameras pointed at her bed. They didn’t stop it — they defended it."

When Forrest filed a grievance about the use of the cameras, it was rejected as being untimely, according to the lawsuit.

One of the corrections officers also threatened Forrest's mother, Jessica Larson, with adding two years to Forrest's sentence if Larson took any photos of her grandson.

The lawsuit alleges there were less intrusive means of maintaining custody of Forrest, like stationing officers in the hallway outside the room's only entrance, putting officers behind the privacy curtain, using female officers only or putting the cameras in sleep mode.

Forrest was released on parole in December after serving time for a nonviolent drug offense, according to the lawsuit.

Conditions at Women's Huron Valley have been under fire this year amid complaints of black mold inside the prison and five inmates dying within three months, between May and July.

Ashley Hoath, 36, died by suicide in early June, and Khaira Howard, 28, died May 14 of a blood clot in her lung. Autopsies for Rebecca Fackler, 57, who died May 17, and Dalephenia Jones, 62, who died July 2, have not been released.

Dasie Forbes, 69, who died July 23, was undergoing palliative care for blood cancer and her death was expected, according to MDOC.

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