She foiled the federal prison system in 1999 when she snuck a vial of her husband's sperm out of a Pennsylvania penitentiary, but now Regina Granato says the feds hate her daughter for ever being born. The government is keeping Kevin Granato, a one-time Colombo mob associate, as far from the family's New York City home as possible. So far that the 9-year-old daughter with a heart condition (conceived with that vial of sperm) never gets to see her father.
Since being transferred out of the Allenwood Federal Penetentiary, Granato has spent three and a half years in solitary confinement and seen daughter Gianna only once. Kevin was 13 years into a 25-year sentence for drug dealing and racketeering when his wife appeared at the prison, showing off a baby girl she said was her husband's. Strange, thought prison officials. Since the early 1990s, federal prison inmates have been denied conjugal visits. Gianna was born in 1999.
Since then, Granato has been bounced around. He served time in Oregon, including the stint in solitary, before being moved to West Virginia. Repeated requests to be moved to a facility within 50 miles of home have been denied. The cryogenic sperm kit used by the then 35-year-old Regina Granato earned her husband an extra 16 months in prison, which means he won't be released until 2013. If visiting Dad were as simple as hopping in a car, Regina would make the trip with Gianna. But she told a Staten Island, N.Y. newspaper that her daughter has been diagnosed with "a mild case of mitral valve prolapse, a genetic heart condition that causes a racing arrhythmic heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath and chest pain."
"She can't be in a car for more than two hours," Regina says. "I want to, but the cardiologist urges me not to take her in a car that long." Regina served her own sentence - nine months probation and 100 hours of community service - for the sperm smuggling. But she says it's her daughter who is being punished now. "State prisons can have conjugal visits. I didn't want a conjugal visit," she said. "I wanted a child. But they hate us for what we did. They hate us just because she was born."
I can't help but point out that Kevin Granato is in prison for a reason. And his wife knew it when she decided to have his baby. Her clock was ticking, yes, and chances are without committing a crime, she never would have had the baby she always wanted. But shouldn't she have known her husband's fate was up to the prison system? Should the federal government really be expected to make allowances for two convicted criminals and the baby they had illegally?
Image: eHow
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