SB 687, the Births in Custody Reporting Act of 2025, would require states that receive certain federal justice-related funds to submit quarterly, anonymized reports to the Attorney General about pregnant inmates and inmates who give birth while detained or incarcerated. The reports would cover a broad range of custodial settings, including jails, prisons, boot camp prisons, contract facilities, and juvenile facilities, and would include data such as the number of pregnant inmates, race and ethnicity, timing of admission, pregnancy testing and prenatal care, pregnancy outcomes, use of restraints, postpartum care, and placement in restrictive housing.
The bill also directs the Attorney General to publish the state reports publicly, conduct a study using the reported information, and submit a report to Congress within two years analyzing how the data can improve treatment of pregnant and postpartum inmates and examining possible relationships between adverse pregnancy outcomes and facility management. States would have 120 days to comply, with a possible 120-day extension for good-faith efforts, and noncompliant states could face up to a 10 percent reduction in certain federal criminal justice grant funds, with those funds reallocated to compliant states.
The bill would not directly create new criminal penalties or change substantive state custody laws, but it would condition continued eligibility for certain federal law enforcement grant funding on state reporting compliance. It would require state and local correctional systems to collect and transmit standardized, aggregate data on pregnancy-related care and outcomes in custody, while prohibiting personally identifiable information. The measure would also expand federal oversight by requiring public disclosure of the reports and a federal study, potentially influencing state jail, prison, and juvenile facility practices regarding prenatal care, restraints, postpartum treatment, and restrictive housing.
Based on the bill text and available legislative history, the measure appears to be framed as a bipartisan oversight and public-health reporting bill rather than a controversial enforcement proposal. It was introduced by Senators Ossoff and Kennedy and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, with no recorded votes or committee debate provided in the available materials. The overall tone of the bill is preventive and informational, emphasizing transparency, data collection, and improved treatment of pregnant and postpartum incarcerated people.
The main points of potential contention are the reporting mandate and the funding penalty for noncompliance. States and correctional agencies may object to the administrative burden of collecting detailed pregnancy-related data across multiple facility types, especially within the short compliance window. Another likely issue is federal-state tension over conditioning grant funds on compliance, as well as the scope of required information on restraints, restrictive housing, and postpartum care. Advocates for incarcerated women and maternal health are likely to support the bill’s transparency and oversight goals, while correctional administrators may be more concerned about implementation costs and operational constraints.