Two pregnant Colorado inmates lost their babies allegedly due to poor medical care in the state prison system. Federal lawsuits are pending. David Lane, the lawyer for one of the women, calls the situation "a national scandal."

The female prison population is increasing. So is the number of pregnant inmates. Medical care for them has not been rising at the same rate.

The horror stories of the two women are described in detail in the article. While prison authorities maintain they are "proud" of the level of care they provide, we wonder how they can say that with a straight face.

The state has already paid $50,000. to one of the women and fired the nurse-practitioner who treated her. The state prison's chief doctor had this to say about her care in his official report: "I feel that the care rendered this patient was below any minimal level of competency."

The fired nurse-practitioner changed her name and is still working in nursing, currently at a nursing home. Her lawyer defends her actions.

Suing the prisons is no easy task. In one of the cases, where the inmate suffered a still birth due to the allegedly incompetent (some would say criminal) care received, David Lane has had to ask federal Judge John Kane "to declare unconstitutional a 1996 federal law, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, that changed what prisoners can sue over."

"It says if a prisoner wants to file a civil rights lawsuit under the Eighth Amendment (which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment), there must be some physical injury," Lane said. "They can psychologically torture any prisoner they want to."

"I mean," Lane said, "not having trained staff on duty when you have inmates going into labor? Come on."

We agree. And Judge Kane, no stranger to prison reform issues, may just be the Judge to do so.