tonight on "nightline," really big love. polyga polygamy, multiple spouses and now multiple reality shows. one of them leading the fight to make the practice legal, and winning round one. >> thousands of people living in plural marriage in utah now are free. >> they say it's their right, and that they are not wrong. >> it's the most humbling thing i've ever done in my life. >> plus, a young mother raises her child in prison, yes, prison. and she's one of hundreds. they say it's good for the moms. but what about the babies behind bars. >> just seeing his little face every day is going to be a big incentive for me, definitely. >> and saving sebastian. this aunt stopped traffic when

her 5-month-old nephew appeared to stop breathing. that's when she took matters into her own hands.

good evening. you're about to meet a man who has four wives. and they'll all say they're one big happy family. polygamists believe their practices will help them get to heaven. and now one family is crusading in court to make their more the merrier lifestyle a legal one. and so far they're winning. >> reporter: one husband, four wives, 17 children. >> i believe in living this lifestyle. >> we know them as reality tv stars on the hit show "sister wives." >> i wouldn't want anything

else. >> reporter: but now hollywood's most famous polygamist have taken on a new unlikely role as legal crusaders, embroiled in a courtroom fight over the fate of polygamy. are you prepared to take this all the way to the supreme court in you have to? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it is an epic battle. cody brown and all those wives, mary, janelle, robin against the state of utah after the family flaunted their plural lifestyle on tv, authorities went after them and the browns fled utah for nevada. >> it's brain damage to move this group. >> reporter: then they sued, claiming a first amendment right to live how they want to live. >> it was really an issue of freedom of expression, freedom of love anybody. you should be able to organize their family according to how they choose. >> reporter: and they want the first american polygamy ruling in more than 130 years.

a federal judge siding with them in december, declaring a key part of utah's polyga lilygamy unconstitutional. he can live with his live, just as long as there's only one marriage license. the others are his spiritual wooifs. >> it's nice to not have felons to our names. >> thoufs people in plural marriages in utah now are free. >> reporter: the browns say in their home, everyone is equal. but what about all the other polygamists living in the shadows? is your family still growing? >> yes, it will continue to grow. i may have another lady that comes into the family. i'm pretty sure i'll have more children that will come into the family. and so as the husband and the provider, a lot of what i do is prepare for that. >> reporter: i met the collies, all 22 of them, dad, three wo f

wives, 18 kids last year. they, too, say the women have a say. but do they really? >> are you allowed to say as a wife no more, there's no more room? >> not really. because the way i came in was i believed i belonged to michael and i can't say there's nobody else that belongs to you. that's between michael and god. >> reporter: i've also been inside the bizarre world of convicted pedophile warren jeffs and the flds. we're getting close now. last last fall, i went with the leader's own nephew, young men who have turned against everything their uncle stands for. it didn't take long to get the message we were not welcome. did they do that because of us? >> yeah. >> reporter: they have their own reality show, too, breaking the faith where they went back to their own neighborhood to try, they say, to free young women who still live there.

>> i used to be on the god jasqd and i know how they act. >> given to warren jeffs private security force tailed us. what is he trying to do right now? intimidate us? >> intimidate us. >> reporter: why doesn't a girl who's 20, 21 years old get up and go. >> they don't know where to go. only thing they know is their bedroom, the kitsch and the laundry room. and that's it. >> reporter: so no fences at all. >> no. >> reporter: the browns live far away from that world and they believe the court ruling in their favor helps the women who still live in it. >> let's say a girl is raped by her uncle, okay? and she's in the flds community, she's more concerned about taking this to the law and having her family ripped apart than she is about actually being raped again. this is the truth. this is what's happening. >> reporter: could this ruling that helps your family and families like yours also be

helping believers and followers of warren jeffs? >> what we're hoping is this ruling will help create the checks and balances that need to exist in societies that are closed now. >> they've got to be kidding. >> reporter: lawyer marcy hamilton studies polygamy and says the ruling actually makes it tougher for authorities to investigate potential abuse. >> reporter: when you have a polygamist culture and you have one man with five women, you have to do two things -- you have to marry younger and younger women in order for one man to have multiple wives. and you have to discard some of the boys. >> reporter: the united nations calls polygamy a violation of human rights. another study concluded polygamy leads to poverty and higher rates of child neglect and abuse. >> it is a real attack on the equality of women. even cody brown's arrangement is offensive to equality principles. >> reporter: but for the browns and other families like theirs,

this life, one man, many wives, is a means to get to heaven. and while utah's attorney general plans to appeal the ruling, the browns say they'll fight for it before a higher court if they have to. >> i just want to be free man. >> reporter: and a higher power. i'm cecelia vega in las vegas. >> thanks for that report. next, for kids like max, being with their mothers means growing up behind bars. it's not just her future hanging in the balance. it's also his.

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10 more possible. join uatp.org and thrive. >> with the number of u.s. female prisoners on the rise, there's an issue to address -- babies behind bars. now some states are allowing a number of incarcerated women to

keep their babies behind bars. while they sate's good for the mother, what about the kids? . >> reporter: tomorrow, jacqueline meets with her parole at's at stake in her very freedom. she's already served nine months in prison for stealing. her sentence could keep her locked up for three more years. >> it's veryve wracking. >> it feels like they have your future in your hands. >> yes, yes, definitely. >> reporter: if parole is denied, her son max might be taken away from her because if he gets too old, he'll have to leave prison. yep, max is actually growing up behind bars. >> hello. what's your name? >> i'm max. jax ly ter: hi max. jacqueline is an inte in new york state. one of a growing numr of mothers raising the babies in >> he's such a good little bo i. giot very cky.

>> reporter: "nightline" spent a year following them. is it cruel to keep babies in prison? and do the inmates deserve to be with their kids while paying their debt to society. the vast majority of the 2,000 or so inmates who give birth in american prisons are separated from their babies, as depicted in this gripping scene from orange is the new black when a distraught new mother returns to her cell childless. but bedford is just one of a handful of women prisons that allow some incarcerated moms to keep their newborns with them until the babies are 1 mon8 mon old. max is six months old and needs help just standing up. i see you. i see what you're doing. you're very important. >> just seeing his little face every day and knowing that i have to take care of him is going to be a big incentive for me, definitely.

>> reporter: there are people in our country who think you committed a crime, you don't deserve to be with your baby. >> i would say just like they say here, it depends on the nature of your crime. >> no one convicted of violent crimes, arson or crimes involving children are allowed into the program. but for those who are accepted, they live in a separate wing apart from the general population. make no mistake. this is still prison. there are very few personal freedoms. no cell phone, no jewelry or makeup and just three photos a month of the baby. this is where you sleep. and there's bars on the windows. >> reporte this is the only home max has ever known. jacqueline got caught stealing silverware. she said she needed the money to buy drugs. >> what kind of drugs? >> everything. a lit built of everything. pills, cocaine. >> reporter: what kind of pills?

>> like painkillers. >> reporter: jacqueline said she was clean and associasober by t she landed in prison. >> i was in labor for 48 hours with max. >> reporter: giving birth to max in prison has opened her eyes. >> i cleaned up my act and got to see where i was headed. at the end of it all, now i think it saved my life. >> reporter: it's now a month later, march, and we return for another visit. a pediatrician who comes every two weeks confirms max's progress. >> gained exactly what we expected him to gain with his weight and height and his brain is growing nicely as well. >> reporter: the check-up also gives her an opportunity to get parenting advice. >> he ate some noodles, table food? >> i would hold on the table food. >> reporter: surprisingly, the baby is statistically more

likely to thrive with mom, even in prison. how does it benefit a baby to be raised behind bars? >> you know, the babies aren't aware they're behind bars. they get excellent care. they're very well bonded to the moms. bonding gives a baby trust in the world and that they will be taken care of. >> reporter: max and his mother had never spent a full day apart. aside from her chores in the prison block, she's a full time single parent. babying, diapers and nursing, which heightened bonding between mother and baby. mother also gets parenting classes. liz hamilton runs the nursery program at bedford. i can see people at home thinking well, they have it so good. i mean, i actually heard one of the prison guards say i didn't get to take my baby to a doctor twice a month. in what way is being in this environment punishment. >> you see the warm fuzzies, baby care. you don't see the, you know, waking up early in the morn, getting all your chores done.

>> reporter: they don't have their freedom. >> no. and they don't g et to make all the choices they would outside. >> reporter: all these services have a price tag, roughly $24,000 a year. but it turns out that is cheaper than the $30,000 a year it costs if a mom winds up back in jail. >> if if she stays out of jail for five years, think of the savings. >> reporter: a third of moms separated from their babies wound up back in prison compared to under 10% for those able to keep theirs. as for jacqueline, she gets to keep max with her. that parole board meeting she was nervous about resulted in an early release date. if all goes well, they'll get to walk out of prison together in the summer. >> he'll be 11 months old before we leave. we'll be out before his first birthday. >> reporter: joyce browning gave birth in these twins on the same day as jacqueline and wanted to raise them herself.

>> it's just a feeling. >> reporter: you had a maternal instinct. but when the twins were 4 months old, she said she got into an argument with a prison guard on christmas eve and her babies were sent home. >> it was crazy. everything happened to fast. it was traumatizing. >> reporter: though she was lucky to have the baby's father step up, she spent the rest of her days in prison worrying about them. >> it's just a horrible feeling, you know? are they safe? is everything all right. >> reporter: you're describing heart ache. >> yes, yes. i was in a lot of pain. >> reporter: as for jacqueline, it's now may. just 17 days and counting before freedom. we return to find mack walking like a champ but mom's a bundle of emotions. >> i'm nervous. nervous to be home with a baby. i never really had to take care of myself. now i'll be myself and a child.

>> reporter: and then finally, the day she's been waiting for arrives. june 10, freedom. freedom is daunting. >> yes, it is. here we don't have the choice really to do our own thing. and out there, i have all the choices in the world. what do i want to eat today to do i want to get high. >> reporter: but then she's through a last portal and back with a final shout to her fellow prisoners on the nursing ward -- >> bye. be good. i love you, too. >> -- she's on her way. >> you're doing it, honey. >> reporter: after three months being out in the real world, we catch up with jacqueline and max. >> you did it. >> good job. >> it was very hard the first month, i think, to really get a grasp on being sober and being

home and what real life is going to be like for me now. >> reporter: they're staying with her parents for now, but jacqueline has landed her first job and is determined to make her son as proud of her as she is of him. >> i just want to work and save money. >> reporter: you're not sugar coating it. this is not going to be easy. >> no. it's starting from nothing. so i'll get there. >> jimmy: what are your hopes and dreams for him? >> i just hope one day he can learn from my mistakes and not have to go down the road that i chose. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm juju chang from upstate new york. >> good so mare tans and cops rush to help. but for this roadside rescue, one woman kept it all in the family.

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>> we all know meryl streep is hollywood loyalty. but she gets thanked in oscar speeches more often than even god. >> fabulous, beautiful, wonderful meryl streep. >> and my lover meryl streep. >> i'm sorry meryl, you have to suck that up.

>> even it's not as if the seemingly immortal actress doesn't get the meryl mania. >> when they called my name, i had this feeling i could hear half of america going oh, no. oh, come on, why her? again. >> and a 13-year-old girl scout using her head to set up shop. selling those classic cookies outside a pot dispensary in california. her mother said she sold 117 boxes in just two hours. just coincidence that the name girl scout cookie is also a popular strain of the product sold there? but perhaps most thankful today, the family of a 5-month-old brought back from the brink of death when this woman noticed her baby nephew turning blue in the backseat of her car. she jumped into action and administered mouth to mouth. he's expected to make a full recovery, thanks to her super

aunt. amazing story. thanks for watching abc news. tune into "good morning america" tomorrow. have a great weekend. good night.

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