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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:08 pm
Time: 9:08 pm
Results for health care, reproductive
1 results foundAuthor: American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania Title: Reproductive Health Locked Up - An Examination of Pennsylvania Jail Policies Summary: The number of women incarcerated in the United States is rapidly growing at the rate of 11.2% annually – twice the rate of incarceration for men. About 3,800 women are housed in Pennsylvania’s county correctional facilities. Similar to other states, approximately three-quarters are of reproductive age (ages 18–44). Most women in county jails are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, are undereducated, come from minority groups, and fall below the poverty line. Incarcerated women experience disproportionately higher levels of abuse and have worse health status than their non-incarcerated counterparts. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has long-standing commitments to the rights of women, the incarcerated, and reproductive freedom. These three interests led to our involvement in the successful Pennsylvania effort to ban shackling and other restraints for incarcerated women during the latter stages of pregnancy. However sweet the victory, eliminating restraints during pregnancy represents a mere sliver of the reproductive health concerns facing Pennsylvania’s incarcerated women. We decided to look at the issue more broadly with the goal of identifying other aspects of reproductive health care that could be improved through advocacy, legislation, or legal challenges. This report was compiled after reviewing the policies of the 57 county jails in Pennsylvania that house women. We focused on county jails rather than state prisons because the needs of women in these facilities have never been systematically explored. By identifying trends across the state and in individual counties, we aim to help advocates improve women’s reproductive health care behind bars. Using Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law, the state version of the federal Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU of Pennsylvania obtained county jail policies about reproductive health care for women, medical contracts, sick call procedures, and more. Requests were sent to every county correctional facility with a 100% response rate. Six county facilities do not house women, so the report covers the policies of 57 Pennsylvania county facilities that do house women. The policies were reviewed for information about routine gynecological care, contraception, pregnancy testing, abortion access, prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum care, mental health care following miscarriage and pregnancy termination, and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Our findings have a major limitation. They only report on the written policies of county facilities. Actual practices may vary significantly from written policies. In addition, having a written policy does not guarantee that the policy is followed. A county facility may have a detailed written policy about prenatal services that is not followed, while another county may lack a written policy, but women there actually receive high quality prenatal care. Ideally, counties will have good policies that are followed, leading to good practices. Overall, the policies at Pennsylvania jails are not meeting the reproductive health needs of incarcerated women. Policies were more detailed and prevalent where a state law or regulation requires care—such as health screenings, prenatal and postpartum care, and STD/HIV testing and treatment. Absent a law, policies were more likely to be non-existent or inadequate—like those for pregnancy testing, contraception, labor and delivery and, not surprisingly, abortion. The roots of this lie in the evolution of a jail population from one that was primarily male to one that houses an increasing number of women, along with punitive attitudes toward those in jail and a system of county jails that has little oversight. As the population of women in jail continues to grow, counties will increasingly be vulnerable to lawsuits brought by prisoners whose medical treatment or lack of treatment has caused them harm or violated their constitutional rights. The public will be harmed as women leaving jail re-enter the community with unaddressed health needs. And finally, we as a society are harmed when we squander the opportunity to help the most vulnerable among us. Details: Philadelphia, PA: American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, 2012. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 19, 2012 at http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/RHLUrpt.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclupa.org/downloads/RHLUrpt.pdf Shelf Number: 124187 Keywords: Correctional AdministrationHealth Care, ReproductiveJailsWomen Prisoners (Pennsylvania) |