How Menstruation and Hygiene Behind Bars is a Justice Issue
Invariably, every time I’m buying tampons at CVS, there is a man behind me who (for reasons I am yet to decipher) seems infinitely curious about the products I’m buying. He doesn’t look away until I give him a menacing look.
At least I have the option to buy tampons when I need them. For almost 200,000 incarcerated females in the country, that option is nonexistent. Imagine this monthly conversation between a 12-year-old and her male warden, five times her age: “Excuse me, could I get another tampon?” She may receive a tampon, she may not. But every time, without fail, she will receive humiliation and judgment.
The systemic deprivation of menstrual products to incarcerated females is inhumane. We must call on lawmakers to prohibit using menstruation as a form of punishment and guarantee them free, unlimited access to period products.
The daily reality inside prisons is disturbing. In a Missouri survey of 90 incarcerated women, 88% reported bleeding onto their clothes and floor, 80% made makeshift tampons out of bedsheets, and 28% had vaginal infections.1 In Georgia, 9/12 surveyed females had to go through a guard to get products – a humiliating, dismissing process. Only 1/11 facilities provided free, unlimited products: the others either capped supplies or forced women to buy them.2 With Georgia’s minimum wage for incarcerated individuals being $0, women without family support are left helpless.
Guards worsen these conditions: tampons are ripped open to check for contraband, becoming contaminated. In Texas, prisoners are strip-searched, forced to remove their pads while leaving the cell, exposing them to infections and shame.3 No woman should be forced to plead for basic hygiene. No woman should be exposed to this indignity.
The only way to counter this is through meaningful legislation. Current laws are filled with loopholes and uneven implementation. Georgia has no law surrounding menstrual products in prison. The Department of Corrections has a policy to provide them to women on an “as-needed” basis, which is subjective from facility to facility and doesn’t cover county or local jails.4
At the Federal level, laws like the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act and First Step Act (guaranteeing free pads/tampons) exist, but apply only in federal jails.5 95% of women in the country are housed in local and state jails, not federal prisons. As almost all youth detention centers are operated by state/local authorities, they are also overlooked by these provisions.6
Reform is beyond morally necessary. It shouldn’t be considered charity to guarantee basic dignity to every menstruating woman in this country. Whether they live within prison walls or the walls of a house, they deserve the same kind of respect. We take our access to hygiene products for granted, just being able to drive to the store for pads, but thousands of women throughout the country consider that an unattainable luxury. What we take for granted is used as a punishment, as a vulnerability for women sitting in their cells. Until lawmakers act, the voices of these women will go unheard. It falls on us to raise those voices for them.
Sources
Missouri Appleseed. (2018). Access to feminine hygiene products in Missouri prisons [Report]. https://missouriappleseed.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/research-summary-access-to-feminine-hygiene-products-in-missouri-prisons.pdf
Georgiastomp. (2021, November 7). “Made to Feel Like a Burden”: Accessing Menstrual Products Within Georgia Correctional Facilities. Georgia STOMP.
Law, V., & Nalebuff, R. K. (2026a, April 30). Prisons use menstruation as a form of punishment. TIME. https://time.com/6265653/prison-menstruation-punishment/
State Policies. (n.d.). The Prison Flow Project. https://theprisonflowproject.com/state-directives-around-access/
Initiative, P. P., & Sawyer, A. K. a. W. (n.d.). Women’s Mass Incarceration: The whole Pie 2024. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024women.html
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