Incarcerated Women
Imprisonment Rates of Women based on race:
Black women → 92 per 100,000
White women → 49 per 100,000
Hispanic women → 67 per 100,000
Between 2000 and 2017, the rate of imprisonment for Black women decreased by 55% and increased by 44% for white women
In 2016, over 200,000 women were incarcerated nationwide, with that number increasing annually. In all but 13 states, free menstrual hygiene products in prisons are not mandated by state law. In these states, women are forced to beg the male security guards, or even exchange sexual favors, for products if not given an adequate supply for the duration of their period, which is incredibly dehumanizing and demeaning toward these women.
Incarcerated women have to pay for these necessary products in some states, but don’t often have the funds to do so. Maxi pads cost $2.63 per package of 24, which is far more than the 75 cents women earn daily, if lucky enough to have a job while incarcerated. Women prioritize using any income they receive to provide for families and for other essential hygiene products, such as toothpaste and deodorant. Without necessary funds to purchase pads and tampons, women have to improvise by using toilet paper or jumpsuits to act as a pad or tampon.
States that do provide free menstrual hygiene products still don’t do so generously. At York Correctional Facility in Niantic, Connecticut, a state which mandates the free distribution of menstrual hygiene products to incarcerated women, women are provided with only 5 pads for two cellmates per week. This is not enough to last an entire cycle, so women often have to keep them on for a day and often bleed through. In addition, the pads which are distributed don’t have wings, leading them to falling out. The conditions of menstrual hygiene and menstrual equity for incarcerated women require immediate change.
Chart showing numbers of women in State Prisons and Local Jails and whether they are provided with free pads and/or tampons.
Rank** State Female Inmates Free products*
1 Oklahoma 3,750
2 Louisiana 4,535 x
3 Texas 21,344 x
4 Idaho 1,321
5 Georgia 8,438
6 Wyoming 464
7 Kentucky 3,673 x
8 Nevada 2,047
9 Arizona 5,081
10 Mississippi 2,528
11 Colorado 3,849 x
12 New Mexico 1,599
13 Alabama 3,769 x
14 South Dakota 612
15 Florida 14,094 x
16 Tennessee 4,613 x
17 District of Columbia 422 x
18 Virginia 5,530 x
19 Alaska 453
20 South Carolina 2,997
21 Arkansas 1,921
22 Missouri 3,953
23 Montana 603
24 Delaware 552
25 Utah 1,563
26 Indiana 4,005
27 California 21,601 x
28 Kansas 1,610
29 Hawaii 700
30 Wisconsin 3,000
31 North Carolina 4,596
32 Ohio 6,042
33 Washington 3,168
34 Oregon 1,844
35 Nebraska 830
36 Pennsylvania 5,877
37 Maryland 2,545 x
38 North Dakota 278
39 Michigan 4,365
40 Connecticut 1,545 x
41 West Virginia 784
42 Iowa 1,248
43 Illinois 5,109
44 New Jersey 3,111
45 New York 5,618 x
46 New Hampshire 371
47 Minnesota 1,334
48 Massachusetts 1,496
49 Vermont 141
50 Maine 295
51 Rhode Island 212
Total 51 181,435 13
*Laws as of 2020
**Ranking, number of inmates as of 2007
Source:
https://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/factsheet-women.pdf
https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/incarcerated-women-and-girls/#:~:text=Race%20and%20Ethnicity%20in%20Prisons,49%20per%20100%2C000).