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How Female Incarceration
Has Failed Women’s Rights
By T Moran
02.26.2018
The American justice system has cracked down on its policies which means we incarcerate about 2.3 million people across the nation. 7 percent of that is women, and though the percentage is small, they are the fastest growing group of prisoners. The prison system has escaped and exploited the respect the government has give to them. Prisons continue to mistreat and assault female inmates which has led to a major problem in the American Society.
There are more than 200,000 females in prison nationwide, this number has increased by 700 percent since 1990. Men are the majority by far but women face more challenges than men. Prisons charge for sanitary products and women are more at risk to be assaulted by correctional officers.Prisons are trusted to keep inmates safe though some fail to do exactly that. Feeling safe also includes feeling cared for, and although these women are incarcerated, they deserve their human rights.
Prisons are not fixing the drug epidemic that has hit America. Many women such as Sarah Zarba have been addicted to heroin when they were sent to prison. Zarba was placed into a prison which did not give her medical attention to drug related withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms range from gastrointestinal, psychological, behavioral, and problems which affect the entire body. Some extinct visual exhibitions are hallucinations, seizures, anxiety and self harm. While Zarba survived her withdrawal some end in death. There have been more than twenty instances in which a private lawsuit was filed against a prison where an inmate died of withdrawal and they were not given medical attention. While some prisons are sterile, others are breeding grounds for the drug trade. Not only are inmates involved in this, correctional officers take their cut of profit. Drugs are smuggled into prisons through a variety of ways. Some drugs are hid under stamps affixed to envelopes. Some are passed orally through a simple kiss. And some are handed out from officers in exchange for sexual favors. In states such as Florida and South Carolina, prisons have placed a rotation of search teams equipped with dogs to sniff out contraband items.
America has a large drug abuse problem and prisons are not doing anything to stop it. Some inmates are able to smuggle large amounts of drugs and sell them within the the prison. Bumperhead, an inmate in a New Mexico prison, might make five thousand dollars a month selling 15 “cigarettes” of crack cocaine. The drug trade is thriving in prisons, a place where it’s supposed to be the exact opposite of that. Officers have complete control over them because they are their suppliers. Richard Pillajo, a wellness education teacher and officer at Florida State Prison, was arrested in 2009 for attempting to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and hydrocodone pills to inmates. Drugs are reaching inmates in numerous ways. Some from visiting family members, staff and other inmates who work at offsite locations. In Florida, nine canine units are rotated between 60 prisons throughout the state.
Incarcerated women earn the lowest minimum wage out of all states. Ayana Thomas, a mother of two sent to prison for money laundering. Ironically, while she had plenty of money on the outside, she made $13.75 a month on the inside. For those women who make $13.75 is about 45 cents a day, just 5 cents per hours for an 8 hour work day. Because female inmates make little money at their jobs, they depend on their family and outside help to pays for then necessities. For example, Kyndia Riley sent her mother money for shampoo, tampons, pads, soap, toilet paper, etc. It’s not that the prison is not supplying pads, but it is the guards who fail to pass them out properly. Some leave them in a box, while others pass them out individually based on “need”. Tampons are harder to get. Only given to certain units, inmates have to beg for sanitary products which, in turn, makes officers the powerhouses of the unit. Some officers try to teach women a lesson by cutting off their supply.
In New York facilities, some women recall stories that haunt their past. Christine, had her period when her father came to visit. After the visit, while being strip searched, blood ran down her legs as the female Correctional Officer (CO) told her how “disgusted she was, how disgusting she was.” Maybe the CO did not mean to be so blunt, but instead meant to express feelings about how the system was failing the needs of female inmates. However, it is not appropriate for Correctional Officers to degrade women during their menstrual cycle. Women, incarcerated or not, deserve respect and what they receive from superiors is anything but respect. When asked about Christine’s incident, a spokesperson from the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision wrote that the department was reviewing it’s policies to meet personal hygiene needs. They also added that “female inmates are provided sanitary napkins on an as-needed basis.” The phrase the Department of Corrections keeps using: “On need basis” has no actual meaning. The Department of Corrections needs to improve how inmates are treated and stop making excuses they can solve with an easy policy.
According to the National Women’s Law Center which grades states on how well they inform the public about their parental policies, Connecticut prisons scored a D+ composite grade for prenatal care, shackling policies and family based treatment in 2010. Out of a possible 17 points, Connecticut prisons scored a four which is equal to about a D in prenatal care.This prenatal score includes: Medical examinations, screening for high risk pregnancies, nutrition, HIV testing, pre existing arrangements, advice on activity levels, and a report of all pregnancies and their outcomes. A low score means a that the state is failing on its policies. Connecticut fails to protect women and give them rights, and it shows in reports. However, even though these reports are published, lawmakers fail to take action.
On average, 6-10% of incarcerated women are pregnant. Pregnancies among incarcerated inmates are the most vulnerable, unplanned and high risk. Pregnancies are affected by drug and alcohol related problems, poor nutrition, violence and mental illness. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is suggesting solutions to problems such as pregnancies pre screenings which would identify any faults that might happen during the pregnancy. Right now, women are not screened upon entry for pregnancy, and are not screened for substance abuse throughout their stay. And while there may be problems before a birth of a child, there are many problems after a pregnancy comes to term.
After a child is born, a woman produces hormones that attaches her emotionally to her child. In most cases, children are taken away and their mothers have to fight for them upon release. However, in some prisons, such as the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in upstate New York houses one of the oldest prison nurseries. This is the place where New York sends all of its pregnant inmates and is one of twelve in the entire country. At Bedford Hills, women are allowed to keep their babies for up to 18 months. The goal is to create bonds between children and their mothers, to give the mothers incentives to stay on a straight path until release. But not all inmates are given this opportunity. In other prisons and jails, women do not get their children, some spend only 48 hours before their children are put into foster care.
While parental classes and nurseries are offered at some prisons, there is still a lack of rights during birth. Women are restrained from the moment they enter the hospital and the moment they leave and during postpartum recuperation. Restraints such as handcuffs make it difficult for doctors to perform their jobs and make the process of labor and delivery more painful for women. Though the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) ended shackling in a 2008 policy, restraints still exist. Thirty-six states received low grades with their failure to comply with the policy.
While some women are not pregnant in prison, they still have children on the outside. Many like Kyndia Riley had parents placed 8 hours from their home. Riley could not visit as often as she could because the money she would have spent going to see her mother, she spent filling her commissary. When Riley could visit, she and her grandparents drove from Virginia to Connecticut and then drive back that night because they did not have enough money to rent a hotel room for the night. It’s situations like these that are extremely unfair and question the policies that affect women and mothers behind bars.
There are about 65 million Americans with a criminal record which has its restrictions when looking for employment. Even with the slim chance of finding employment, the stigma around incarceration is an unknown barrier people do not experience until on release. When Ayana Thomas was released, her house had been foreclosed on and she had to take her two children to a shelter. Not only were there problems finding housing, she faced the stigma around incarceration and finding a job was a difficult task because there are restriction on employment and education. Fortunately, organizations such as 70 Million Jobs help former convicts find jobs by connecting people to employers who are in need of employees and hire based on work and production, not on the person’s past. They claim that unlike other companies, the employers are looking for employees and a person with a small drug charge shouldn’t affect their entire future.
America is failing its women, both in and out of prison. The public may not observe what is happening but America has an issue they cannot ignore anymore. Incarcerated women are losing the human rights because politicians are not being just. These women are part of our society and they deserve rights. They don’t deserve to be left alone in the dark. America needs to be their light.