The woman is pregnant with triplets and is a drug user.

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) – A judge has ordered a known heroin addict pregnant with triplets held on bail to protect the mother’s unborn children following her 27th arrest.

Christien Rivera, 24, has already lost three children to the state, but officials hope her $5,000 cash bail will be too high to result in her release from the state women’s prison MCI-Framingham, the Eagle-Tribune reported Sunday.

Rivera’s last child, born in 2002, tested positive for drugs hours after its birth, and officials do not want the same for the triplets. She is due in three months.

“If she wants to poison her own body that’s one thing, but assuming what is in the police report is true, she’s affecting three other people,” said Lawrence District Court Judge Allen J. Jarasitis when he set Rivera’s bail.

On Thursday, Rivera coaxed an undercover officer to drive her to her drug dealer, where she obtained a rock of crack cocaine. Rivera offered to share it with the officer for $10, officers said. During a police search, officers also found Rivera carrying a bag of heroin.

Rivera’s lawyer, David E. Timmons, sought house arrest instead of bail, saying his client’s high-risk pregnancy required weekly medical visits and that Rivera’s “biggest concern is the care of her children.”

Edward J. Foley, deputy superintendent at MCI-Framingham, said MCI-Framingham sees an average of 145 pregnant women per year. He said of those pregnancies, roughly 10 babies will be born while the mother is still incarcerated and the rest will be delivered after the mother’s release.

In most cases, relatives care for inmates’ infants, said Denise Monteiro, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. “Some women have a great support system and the family is always a great resource,” she said. “In this case if that’s possible that’s what we’ll do. It wasn’t possible in the past, so I don’t know.”

Rivera’s three other children, born in 1998, 2000 and 2002, were all taken by the state – two were taken on the day they were born. Rivera can never see the three children again, according to records. Social Services cannot step in until children are born, Monteiro said.

Monteiro said Social Services workers have tried to help her get drug counseling.

“She made a brave attempt, but never followed through. She did make the attempt. She wanted the help and originally began to do the work, but was not able to complete it,” Monteiro said.

Rivera’s friend Edwin Alicea, who knows Rivera as Roxi, says she wanted help.

“She’s homeless,” Alicea said. “She was telling me she wanted to go get methadone, that way she can get an apartment. She’s got a heroin problem. She hasn’t had any luck.”

In prison, a program called Catch the Hope will provide her with a social worker and a nurse. Foley said services also include weekly prenatal classes that address childbirth, reproductive health and substance abuse.

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