Bloodstained Pants, and begging for a pad
Punishment within a punishment
According to Mayo Clinic, “the average menstruation lasts two to seven days and happens every 21 to 35 days. Most hygiene-product companies advise changing a pad or tampon every four to six hours to prevent odor and infection.” If a woman has an average menstruation of five days and follows guidelines to change her pad or tampon every six hours, she would need 20 pads or tampons per period. Some women experience heavy menstruation and require more.
In Arizona, until recently it was legal to give women inmates 12 pads per month. According to David Brand, author of “12 Pads Per Month?,” and the effects on the inmates, as “it was forcing them to ration the way they manage periods, “free blood” or rely on unsanitary solutions.” Lucinda Joy Peach, a feminist, and scholar confirms that the law has been unresponsive and ineffective when it comes to women as it is bias to serve the men in power only. Therefore, it is a common practice for the law to disregard female needs, especially within the prison system.
Prison, an institution hidden from the public eye has figured a way to punish women twice for their status as inmate. According to Angela Davis, feminist and author of Public Imprisonment and Private Violence: Reflections on the Hidden Punishment of Women, gives a powerful insight into the world of punishments for female convicts within the cell walls. She describes how, “The history of prison reform reveals multiple ironies… it was once regarded as a promise of enlightened moral restoration and thus, as a significant improvement over forms of punishment that relied on the infliction of corporal pain.” A system that was meant for rehabilitation is now used to torture and punish its inmates any way that it can, and in this case it was the denial of proper hygiene for menstrual periods.
Arizona State Representative Athena Salman, decided to do something about the dehumanizing ways the rules for women inmate were practiced about menstruation. She proposed House Bill 2222 , which would appropriate $80,000 from state funds to guarantee inmates unlimited access to feminine hygiene products, including tampons, but first the proposal had to go through a nine-man committee that held the faith of women menstruation hygiene within the prison system in their hands.
Several men on the committee wondered why they were debating menstruation. According to Arizona Central, Republican Rep. Jay Lawrence, the committee chairman, said, “I’m almost sorry I heard the bill.” He added, “I didn’t expect to hear pads and tampons and the problems of periods.”
Followed by, Rep. Anthony Kern, and Rep. Glendale, who said giving prisoners more feminine-hygiene products would likely result in “a lot of frivolous actions.”
Earlier in the hearing, Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, expressed concerns that inmates “wanting to cause trouble” or who “have some sort of mental issue” could ask for 10 items a day just to “flush them down a toilet or stuff them in a pipe to just vandalize the cell.”
The problem with this scenario is that men are given the right to rule over women’s bodies. To them, menstruation is a taboo topic that should stay hidden behind bathroom doors. They don’t experience the uterus shedding every month, the severe cramps that follow, the embarrassment to have blood go through your pants, or the necessity to stay clean with every new box of pads or tampons that females buy every month.
During a February 5 committee hearing, Salman and former inmates spoke in support of the bill. Salman said, “the current distribution of 12 pads a month is unfair because incarcerated women are paid 15 cents an hour, but a 16-pack of pads are $3.20 and a 10-pack of tampons are $2.05 in prisons.” Salman told CNN she thinks the bill struck a nerve.
Confessions of female inmates:
“Bloodstained pants, bartering and begging for pads and tampons was a regular occurrence,” Adrienne Kitcheyan said of her six years in Perryville.
“I would take the pad apart and make three tampons because it would hold better at work and I have received a ticket before for contraband because you’re not allowed to do that,” she said.
Kitcheyan said if blood stained a prisoner’s pants, she would be given a ticket for being out of dress code, which could result in her losing visitation rights, phone calls and the ability to purchase store items — including tampons and pads.
After hearing several confessions Republican Reps. Kern, Travis Grantham, Mark Finchem and Jay Lawrence voted against it.
Democratic state Reps. Richard Andrade, Eric Descheenie, Diego Espinoza and Ray Martinez and Republican Rep. Noel Campbell voted in favor of the bill.
“To all the women out there who have been embarrassed and humiliated … we need to apologize,” Campbell said… he would support in the future only with changes to its language. Therefore, men prove once against how women’s health concerns are not important and should not be taken to the extreme for a new bill, as if they control the language they have full control of the entire system.
“In light of the Arizona Department of Correction’s decision to revise their administrative policy on feminine hygiene products, HB 2222 would now be redundant and Rep. Shope does not intend to hear it in the House Rules Committee,” Specht said.
But Salman said she is not letting down her vigilance: She wants to see the policy codified so that it cannot be undone following a change in leadership, and she said she wants to make sure it is implemented as promised.
“Today it is easy to see how gender and race limitations of the nineteenth century discourse on punishment reform ruled out the possibility of linking domestic torture with public torture, and thus of a related campaign against the gendered violence visited on women’s bodies.”
Women have made their voices well heard. From former inmates to everyday women who feel enraged with this topic. They have used social media as a platform. They are reiterating that “tampons and pads are not a privilege.” Women once against have demonstrated that they have power, as they can demand their State Representatives to serve their needs. With insistence, they can pressure the men in power to act. In this case, women felt they needed to stand up and stay united. This is not just a punishment directed for women in prison, it is an issue that addressed women everywhere. No woman should be denied the right to stay clean, as menstruation is a real issue that 50% of the population faces.
As long as the law is unfair and bias, women who have a voice will stand on the platform and be heard. There is no reason why in the 21st century women should be denied the right to proper hygiene over something like menstruation that cannot be controlled. Women like Salman will continue to fight for the women who have been left without a voice. United, women have the power to change the world if they fight for the same cause, and put their differences away.
Arizona is not alone in this fight. A handful of other states including Maryland, Virginia, and Nebraska have introduced similar legislation or policies in recent weeks. Colorado passed a similar amendment last year.
