health
Will the Justice Department Stand Up for Women Raped in Prison?
by Rachel Roth
Eight years ago, Congress acknowledged the brutal fact of systemic sexual assault behind bars by unanimously passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The Justice Department is now poised to issue final rules to implement the law, which makes federal funding to prisons and jails contingent on improved staff training, availability of medical and psychological services for people who suffer sexual assault, investigations and publicly available data about reported assaults.
court-advocacy guard-prisoner-relations health immigration movement-building prison-life prison-industrial-complex sexual-violence state-violence
Women's Rights Don't Stop at the Jailhouse Door
by Rachel Roth
This article is a discussion of incarcerated women’s abortion rights. The article also discusses the difficulties of carrying a pregnancy to term on the inside and the risk that women will lose their parental rights if they have to put their children in foster care.
health reproductive-rights
Reproductive Rights in Theory and Practice: The Meaning of Roe v. Wade for Women in Prison
by Rachel Roth
This article is an overview of women’s health care in jails and prisons, with special attention to access to reproductive health services. It was written for the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the theme is that no one really has a “right” or a “choice” if she doesn’t have access to the resources needed to carry out that choice. The article highlights two recent studies that are the result of collaborations between prisoners’ rights groups and public health students.
health reproductive-rights
Suicide City
by Sara Olson
Right after 4:30 p.m. count on Halloween, there was the sound of a scuffle in D Hall. An alarm brought guards running from all parts of the yard. An ambulance pulled up to the back door of the hall in which we live. The attendant pulled open the back door, got back into the ambulance and backed the rear of the vehicle up to the door. Next thing we knew, a phalanx of guards came hot-footing down our hall toward the ambulance, three of them surrounding a tall, slim woman with her wrists cuffed behind her back, hair flying everywhere and a wild, terrified look in her eyes. She’d threatened to cut her wrists.
prison-life health
Disabled in Prison
by Delores Garcia
By telling her own story, Delores Garcia exposes the injustices to which many disabled prisoners are subjected. Incarcerated far from home, Ms. Garcia is isolated from family and friends as she struggles to receive the medical treatment necessary to keep her alive.
health
The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Reentry: Challenges for African-American Women
by Geneva Brown
Challenges faced by African-American women reentering society.
children-of-prisoners family gender health housing-and-homelessness public-policy racism reentry
Pregnant, in Prison and Denied Care
by Rachel Roth
"But what happens to pregnant women in prison before they wind up in chains at a hospital?" asks Rachel Roth. Roth tells three chilling stories of medical neglect and lack of compassion for women awaiting childbirth behind the prison walls.
children-of-prisoners health mental-health motherhood state-violence
Why A Book About Women In Prison: (Excerpt From Women Behind Bars) 'Health Care Can Be Deadly'
by Silja Talvi
This question is entirely valid, the deeper I began to delve into the underlying reasons for the rapid growth of girls and women in lock-up, the more insight I gained into a world that few outsiders see, much less understand. Once I began to pay particularly close attention to the ways in which females in the criminal justice system were portrayed in the media, it became clear to me that stereotypes and judgments about “fallen women” from centuries ago were still holding fast.
activism health movement-building prison-life
Bonnie, Frannie & Linda RIP
by Jerrye Broomhall
Every year the legislature approves the necessary extra millions to keep Oklahoma’s mass imprisonment binge solvent. Due to the economic downturn, however, the funds are no longer available and the mandate to fund Oklahoma’s prisons is no longer compelling to the cash-strapped legislature.
prison-life health reentry
Bill of Health Rights for Incarcerated Girls
by Girl Talk & Health and Medicine Policy Research Group
This bill of rights was created through a participatory research and action project by young women who were incarcerated in Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. It has been used to support young women’s work to improve conditions within the detention center.
activism health juvenile-justice
A Maypole in Prison
by Starhawk
“When Pagans get their rights, everyone gets their rights,” say Patrick McCollum, who for the last fifteen years has volunteered to serve as a Pagan chaplain in the California prisons. McCollum, a talented jewelry designer and craftsman by nature, has in the last decade spent the bulk of his time—and money—helping prisoners and making interfaith alliances worldwide.
health mental-health peer-support prison-life prison-industrial-complex
Giving Birth in Chains - The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery
by Anna Clark
As birthing choices are increasingly prominent in the public conversation, pregnant women are more and more empowered to decide what sort of care is right for their bodies and their child.Not so for pregnant women who are incarcerated. Not only are their decisions about care restricted, but many incarcerated pregnant women are physically restricted while giving birth: during labor and delivery, they are shackled.
activism children-of-prisoners family health mental-health motherhood prison-life reproductive-rights
Living Conditions Here in the CCWF
by Patricia Wright
This article tells of the unfair treatment, unsanitary, and overcrowding living conditions of CCWF and how the inmates are forced to live in these conditions. California has the largest female institution in America and it is still overcrowded. The overcrowdings of the institution leads to daily fights, unsanitary chow halls, and a exhausted staff to run the institution.
health movement-building prison-life
Ready to Go
by Tammica L. Summers
Summers shares her pain in waiting to be released from prison.