War Against Women In Prison

In Angela Davis's book “Are Prisons Obsolete?”,  the author details the sexualization and brutalizing effects prison has on women. As the number of women in prison has skyrocketed, so has the number of women who are physically, sexually, and emotionally abused while incarcerated.

Women on average are more likely to be sexually harassed and violated in prison in comparison to men, the guard-inmate scenario is the example of the ultimate power conflict. Because women in prison - like sex workers, are commonly believed to not be "rape-able", these women's narratives of sexual assault are never met with help or resources for justice. It's reported that "Eighty-six percent of women in jail report having experienced sexual violence in their lifetime"(Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn), illustrating the prominence, and severity this power struggle implements.  Because male supervisors are able to complete strip searches, guard as the women are showering and using the bathroom - women are in constant exposure and threat to their superiors (Elizabeth Swavola). Women of color, sex workers, LGBTQ community, and low economic status individuals are specifically targeted by the prison system - capitalizing on their minority to only minoritize them further by now taking away their power and civil rights.

As “Me Too” is making waves as a social movement aimed at breaking silences around sexual violence and harassment. It’s been shown that these survivors who have come forward through this movement have experienced compassion, acceptance, and acknowledgment that they did not choose this abuse(Josephine Yurcaba), whereas female (and male) prisoners are often rejected from the strong survivorship unit. There is an overwhelming public opinion that prisoners get what they deserve while they are in prison, and these events do not make prisoners victims or survivors. It’s common to assume prisoners do not deserve or have any rights. As reported by Yurcaba, this system of violence is a cycle for female prisoners; “Two-thirds of detained women are women of color, and 86 percent of women in jail report having experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, according to a 2016 study by the Vera Institute of Justice. About three-quarters of women in prison have experienced intimate-partner violence as adults, and 82 percent report experiencing severe physical or sexual abuse as children, according to the Correctional Association of New York.” These women who are exposed to sexual abuse from a young age are in constant threat of sexual violence, especially in the prison system where this threat worsens yet women have even less resources and support. It becomes a cycle of normalized treatment and alludes to health and mental issues, attacking womens sense of self worth.

Feminine products in prisons are actively considered a luxury and difficult to attain and there have been multiple cases were jails have failed to meet the required feminine products for inmates. In an article written by Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn, the author reports, "In 2014, the ACLU of Michigan sued the Muskegon County Jail on behalf of eight women, arguing that the jail violated the women’s constitutional rights by failing to provide them with menstrual hygiene products, toilet paper, and clean underwear." These products are a necessity, with holding basic supplies from female inmates is equivalent to defining them as a whole insignificant and unworthy of basic rights. The feminine menstrual cycle can be considered a humiliating time of the month, for a lot of prisons who don't offer free supplies and women who do not make enough money to purchase the products go without - often free bleeding or using a tampon/pad for long periods of time which can lead to unhygienic risk factors.  

The fact that prisons (that are mainly male dominated/regulated) can control the health and cleanliness of women is a gruesome example of men having control over women's bodies. Society fights for women's ability to have rights over their bodies outside of prison, but what about the females who are literally cornered by the prison system and stripped away of basic human rights like toilet paper and privacy? The female menstrual cycle isn't a choice, neither is the oppression women in prison face daily against factors they have no control of. There are movements and protests that actively fight against the taxation levied on tampons and pads but within this movement there also needs to be conversations that this is also inclusive to incarcerated women who likewise face the same struggles but at a more severe degree. If society is willing to fight for free tampons and pads, then this must also extend to women in prison.

Women in prison are often categorized, created into this deviant, insane, fallen woman who can no longer maintain the pure image of womanhood. They are stripped of their respectability as the government claims they can no longer uphold the standards of what an American woman is. Fighting for women's rights should mean fighting for all women, whether that be prison, trans, women of color or beyond. Women, in and out of prison deserve freedoms, liberation, and believability.

Farzan, Antonia Noori. “Why Women Are Mailing Tampons to the Arizona House of Representatives.” Phoenix New Times, 14 Feb. 2018, www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/women-mailing-tampons-to-arizona-house-of-representatives-10130451.

Images, Juliya Shumskaya/Getty. “Menstruation Can Become Humiliation in Prisons.” The Cut, June 2015, www.thecut.com/2015/06/menstruation-can-become-humiliation-in-prisons.html.

“Nebraska's Female Prisoners Deserve Access to Basic Sanitary Necessities. Period.” ACLU of Nebraska, 19 Oct. 2017, www.aclunebraska.org/en/news/nebraskas-female-prisoners-deserve-access-basic-sanitary-necessities-period.

Yurcaba, Josephine. “For Survivors of Prison Rape, Saying 'Me Too' Isn't an Option.” Rewire.News, 2018, rewire.news/article/2018/01/08/survivors-prison-rape-saying-isnt-option/.

Vongkiatkajorn, Kanyakrit. “4 Disturbing Ways Jail Is Much Worse for Women than Men.” Mother Jones, 23 June 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/women-in-jails-increasing-faster-than-men-vera-institute-justice/.