Last week the national press picked up the story that Arizona does not provide an adequate supply of feminine hygiene products for inmates in state prisons. If an inmate requires more than 12 pads a month (no tampons are provided), she can buy more—or she can pay a doctor to request an extra supply of pads or tampons. All this while making less than 15 cents an hour.
During last week’s committee hearing about this cruel and absurd policy, inmates and former inmates told legislators that they often wear several pads because the quality is so poor, other women said they were denied menstrual products only to be punished later for bleeding on their clothes, while another said she was given a roll of toilet paper instead. Too much blood after giving birth? Too bad, 12 pads. The testimony went on and on, to the point one Republican tool complained because he had to hear about “the problems of periods.”
This twilight zone story attracted enough attention, including a Rec List diary here at Kos, that you’d think Arizona’s lawmakers would be shamed into doing something. But then “shame” and “Arizona’s lawmakers” are seldom two phrases you’ll find together.
Turns out, House Bill 2222, Tempe Democrat Athena Salman’s solution to the inhumane, unsafe and degrading policy, narrowly passed an all-male committee last week and was on track for a full House vote. That is until Rules Committee Chair, Republican Rep. T.J. Shope, decided not to hear the bill today, effectively killing it. One man did that.
"To have women begging men for their feminine needs is just unconscionable," said Rebecca Olsen McHood, an activist who is running for the state senate.
Rep. Shope said he believes the Department of Corrections will take care of the problem without any interference from lawmakers, which the agency emphasized in a statement today:
“The agency is evaluating revisions to current policy relative to the quality and minimum quantity of feminine hygiene products provided free of charge to all of its female inmates. We are confident that concerns can be appropriately addressed administratively rather than through statute.”
Riiiiight …. this from the agency that was just fined $650,000 for not providing adequate healthcare for inmates. Heck, maybe all state agencies should try the same scheme: Don’t bother passing laws, legislators, we’ll fix the problem! It’s difficult to find a worse state agency in Arizona than Corrections, which has been hijacked by the private-prison corporate peckerheads. Anyone who believes their statement is delusional—or is looking for an excuse not to help women, especially when the population is majority minority. And even if Corrections passed a new policy tomorrow, without a state regulation they could undo it next week.
Rep. Shope may want to check his mailbox tomorrow, because candidate McHood took to twitter and, using the hashtag #LetItFlow, asked women to mail Rep. Shope their pads, tampons, even cash—so he can send the products and money to the Arizona State Prison in Goodyear, which houses 4,000 female inmates. They have responded.
Rep. Shope said he doesn’t know if the Department of Corrections can accept the donations, but the women’s protest hasn’t “changed my opinion that this should be an internal policy and not a state statute.” Yeah, bullshit.
Rep. Shope and other Republican dickheads in Arizona think women’s health centers should be subjected to countless regulations, to the point the legislature’s onerous laws have put many of the clinics out of business. State prisons, not so much.