What is it like to give birth — and then be forced to say goodbye to your baby 24 hours later?
To most mothers, it’s a scenario that’s unimaginable. But it’s reality for the dozens of pregnant women behind bars in any given year at Alabama’s notorious Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.
Tutwiler, a documentary short from FRONTLINE and The Marshall Project, offers a powerful and unforgettable window into the lives of incarcerated pregnant women — and what happens to their newborns.
Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Heroin(e), Recovery Boys) and reported and produced by The Marshall Project’s Alysia Santo, Tutwiler began streaming online on May 6, 2020. An updated version aired on FRONTLINE in a two-part special along with Two Strikes — which examines a little-known “two-strikes” law in Florida — on Sept. 5, 2023.
Our partner The Marshall Project investigates how hundreds of women who used drugs while pregnant have faced criminal charges — even when they deliver healthy babies.
Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Alysia Santo talk to WORLD about filming inside Alabama's Julia Tutwiler Prison, and the intimate access to the pregnant incarcerated women.
Introducing “Tutwiler,” a FRONTLINE/Marshall Project documentary about women in an Alabama prison who support each other through pregnancy, labor and saying goodbye to their newborns.
