Why Arent Prisons Built for Periods
[Music]
imagine this
you’re 12 maybe 13 years old
and life is good right i mean sure maybe
you have a math test on tuesday
oh and you’re really hoping you get
invited to that big pool party coming up
but you know for the most part you’ve
got it all figured out
so you’re a pre-teen you just go to the
bathroom one day
you look down and you realize that
you’re
bleeding from somewhere
you’re not even really sure where you
panic
dying yes you definitely might be dying
so you do what any logical person would
do and you go find your mom
and she says you’re not dying she says
that you just got your first period
pause
all right are you guys uncomfortable yet
you’re worried that i’m gonna keep
describing what it’s like for a preteen
to get their first period
well i’m not gonna lie to you parts of
this talk are gonna be uncomfortable
because it is awkward right i mean sure
yes periods are
natural and normal and all that good
stuff
but that doesn’t make it any easier to
talk about
and i think it’s important to
acknowledge that so
this isn’t going to be a big periods or
beautiful talk
i’ll be the first one to say that more
often than not they’re a considerable
pain
and i would personally be a lot more
comfortable in one of those cozy
auditorium seats
instead of being up here talking about
them so
keeping all of this in mind let’s get
back into that mindset of the 13 year
old
who thinks they’re bleeding out now
generally speaking
most preteens get the learning control
curve under control in due time
sure the pool party was awkward when
everyone asked why you wouldn’t get in
the pool to swim
but if you’re from a middle class family
period care will likely become
relatively uncomfortable but largely
mundane
you’ll buy your monthly packs of pads
tampons or you’ll invest in a menstrual
cup
and you’ll keep going with your life so
for the majority of us
it’s definitely easier and certainly
more comfortable to
not talk about that time of the month
and we shouldn’t have to talk about it
if we don’t want to right
but if you’re one of the one in five
women in the united states
who cannot afford menstrual hygiene
products each month
talking about it is going to become a
serious part of your wellness
because when you’re faced with either
free bleeding or asking for an extra pad
these are those times when talking about
it becomes non-negotiable
insufficient access to period products
is commonly referred to as period
product insecurity
and this could be an entire talk in
itself
but today i’m going to narrow in and
talk about how incarcerated women
are so uniquely affected by the
consequences of period product
insecurity
i’ll start with a few critical
distinctions before we really get into
things
first i want to make it unequivocally
clear that not every person
who experiences a period identifies as a
woman
transgender individuals experiencing
periods inside men’s correctional
facilities
are increasingly at risk of essentially
every single issue i’m going to address
today
but there isn’t any kind of database
establishing who identifies as
transgender
in correctional facilities making their
stories and experiences more difficult
to track down
today i am primarily focusing on the
experiences of women
simply because that’s the data i have
access to
my second statement is more of a
personal one while i visited prisons
care deeply for people who are
incarcerated and have researched this
issue with a passionate fire in my
stomach
i will never be able to truly understand
or speak for the people who have
experienced having a period in prison
first hand my hope is that this talk
will empower those individuals
to share their story and whatever
platform suits their needs
and that my talk can promote practices
and resources to further their fight for
equity
now moving into some more technical
distinctions
what is a period now we don’t need to
get too scientific here
so think of it this way the female body
goes what’s through called a menstrual
cycle
so this is a series of repeating events
the cycle is controlled by hormones
with the ultimate goal of preparing the
body for pregnancy
in preparation for a fertilized egg to
implant itself in the uterine wall
theodore and wall thickens if a
fertilized egg is not implanted though
then this thickened lining begins to
shed and prepare to restart that cycle
when we shed the lining we bleed it out
the average period lasts for about three
to seven days and every woman
experiences this process
differently some women bleed more than
others
and in general menstrual cycles are not
like clockwork
they can be irregular and for women with
conditions such as endometriosis or
other complications the bleeding can
last for weeks at a time
and be accompanied by excruciating
cramping
wow so that’s a lot of blood right how
do women manage periods then
well here we see tampons pads liners
and menstrual cups menstrual cups are
not currently offered at any carter
facility based on my research even
though they provide a really unique and
high amount of bodily autonomy
see menstrual cups are reusable
eliminating the need to provide a
constant stream of products
and giving a woman security and knowing
that she will always be able to handle
her period comfortably
this is not the case for pads liners and
tampons which are all disposable
so they need to be changed out
frequently in order to avoid
dangerous and painful infections
currently
only a handful of states have any kind
of policy
offering free menstrual supplies in
their state prisons
and often these policies only include
access to pads or liners
so tampons must still be purchased at
commissary
we see a few things start to happen as
supplies dwindle down
first a woman running low on supplies
might try to just buy more at commissary
but keep in mind some of these numbers
from the prison policy initiative
we know that one that half of all
incarcerated women are actually housed
in jails
not prisons jails are smaller facilities
meant for people awaiting trial or
serving out really short sentences the
short-term nature of jails means that
there is often less programming
less wage earning opportunities and less
resources in general
now add on the fact that a majority of
these women are primary caretakers for
children
and we start to see how an incarcerated
woman’s money can be spread really thin
often women are faced with spending half
their month’s wage on a box of tampons
from commissary
or for paying for extra time on the
phone with a loved one
so let’s say that she can’t afford to
buy more tampons
but she has a really heavy period and
she’s desperate for help
well she can try to make an appointment
with a nurse but this is often a really
dehumanizing experience
typical procedure states that a woman
requesting more pads for men’s
medical reasons will be given a fresh
pad to use
and then the nurse will examine the
amount of blood on the pad to determine
whether or not they think the woman
actually needs more pads
again there is very little bodily
autonomy involved in this process
but i’ll just add you know that periods
don’t really work like this
it’s not just the same amount of blood
all day every day
the amount of blood depends on what part
of the cycle you’re in
so if you can’t get an appointment on
your heaviest day
well they might just not believe you
that you even need any more pads
no matter what incarcerated women are at
the liberty of
other people making these distinctions
on whether or not they need
necessary health supplies so
some prisons have policies where the
woman can get more pads if she
personally asks a correctional officer
but this puts the woman in a really
unique and vulnerable situation
we’re not talking about a woman asking a
correctional officer for more toothpaste
here
we’re talking about a woman under
correctional control asking her direct
supervising figure for a supply that
they know she
literally needs in order to avoid
bleeding through her clothes
and humiliating herself in the most
extreme circumstances
this power dynamic was in full display
at the alabama women’s prison
a federal investigation at the julia
twyler prison for women
revealed that male correctional officers
were withholding menstrual supplies from
women in exchange for sex
though this is an extreme example i
think it really captures the gravity
of incarcerated women’s vulnerability
when faced with insufficient menstrual
supplies
these issues are not going away and
they’re not just going to get solved on
their own
women are the fastest growing prison
population by far
growing by 834 percent over the past 40
years
so how can you the people sitting here
today or watching this on a screen
do anything about access to menstrual
supplies in women’s prisons
well essentially it all boils down to
this not talking about periods
is not a privilege that everyone has
regardless of
whether or not a carceral institution
has free menstrual supplies
the women still have to ask for more
supplies every time they need them
when asked about providing unlimited
menstrual supplies
to incarcerated women a male state
representative from maine notoriously
stated that
the jail system and the prison system
were never meant to be a country club
but what do you think did what i just
described really sound like a country
club to you
if anything that representative is
proving my point perfectly
we all need to be talking about periods
whether you experience one or not
how can we expect our representatives or
our prison officials to understand and
to prioritize these issues
when the general public tends to shy
away from period talk altogether
at a minimum it deserves a dialogue as
we’ve seen here today
incarcerated women do not have the
choice to avoid these conversations
so yeah talking about periods is
uncomfortable but keep in mind that for
incarcerated women
speaking up is part of getting by thank
[Applause]
you
you