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In the United States, women are the fastest growing group of incarcerated persons. The majority of these women are: serving time for nonviolent crimes, from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, undereducated, and fall below the federal poverty line. In Pennsylvania, there were 2,472 female inmates serving time in state correctional facilities as of 2008; there are an additional 3,800 women housed in county jails on any given day (Snapshot of County Jail Population).
The Duvall Project initially began focusing on issues affecting women in prison by working with a Philadelphia group chaired by the Pennsylvania Prison Society to lobby for the Healthy Birth for Incarcerated Women Act. A news story by the BBC and other media coverage, including editorials from around the state, galvanized the legislature. The bill passed both houses unanimously and Governor Rendell signed the bill July 2, 2010, banning the shackling of pregnant inmates during childbirth (ACLU Press Release and Opinion).
However, the use of shackles on women in labor is just the tip of the iceberg. Though incarcerated womn are supposed to receive a basic level of healthcare in prison, their reproductive health needs are often neglected. Women in prison have difficulty obtaining comprehensive prenatal care, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and access to abortion. More importantly, when women are released from prison, there are even fewer health care services available to them.
Efforts in Pennsylvania's two largest urban areas, Philadelphia Working Group to Enhance Services for Incarcerated Women and Pittsburgh (contact La'Tasha Mayes at newvoicespgh@gmail.com), have been effective in increasing services and changing some treatment standards for incarcerated women, but the majority of other areas in the state do not adequately address the range of health issues facing incarcerated women in county jails. Efforts are underway in Harrisburg and the Lehigh Valley to link organizations and individuals that serve incarcerated women. To learn more about these efforts or to involve your group or community, please contact the Duvall Project at duvall@aclupa.org.
Legal recourse is limited to the most extreme cases of medical neglect and deliberate indifference of situations where a woman's constitutional rights are violated. For instance, some prisons and jails consider abortion to be a necessary medical procedure that should not be delayed due to a woman's ability to pay for the procedure. However, others view abortion as an elective procedure, and will not provide access to abortion if the woman is unable to pay. These differences in policies and ambiguities in the law present an enormous challenge for incarcerated women, as well as for the administrators in the correctional facilities where they are in custody.
Through this project, the Duvall Project aims to use advocacy to enhance health services for incarcerated women, including but not limited to prenatal care, access to abortion, provision of contraceptives, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and adequate nutrition.
For more information about Duvall's work with incarcerated women:
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