Hundreds of prisoners including pregnant women in the Genesee County jail in Flint were forced to drink poisoned water until 23 January.

As reported by Democracy Now!, former prisoner Jody Cramer, who was released this week after serving two months, said prisoners were drinking the lead-contaminated water since October 2015, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver announced the water crisis was a state of emergency.

Mr Cramer said the jail briefly switched to bottled water after the announcement in October but went back to tap water from the Flint river after just five days.

“Many inmates made complaints due to the fact that the deputies did not drink from the faucets,” he said.

“We were consistently told the water was good,” he added.

The jail started handing out bottled water on Friday 23 January, he said, but inmates were still bathing and eating food cooked in poisoned water.

Mr Cramer, who worked as a trustee in the jail kitchen, was instructed to hand out two 12-ounce bottles of water twice a day to inmates - less than half the amount of water recommended by the Institute for Medicine for adult men.

The former inmate said he knew there were several pregnant women in the jail.

Lead contamination can lead to miscarriages and permanent damage to the brain, kidneys and nervous system of newborn children.

Genesee County Jail could not be immediately reached for comment.

Michigan was allocated $28 million in extra aid for the 100,000 Flint residents last week to buy more bottles of water and to measure any “developmental delays” in children. Total government aid since the crisis began now amounts to just $37.3 million.