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There are approximately 138,000 women incarcerated in jails and prisons in the USA. This report describes violations of the internationally guaranteed human rights of women in custody. The violations include:
. rape and other sexual assault by prison officials with impunity
. shackling of pregnant prisoners, especially during labor
. seriously inadequate medical care leading to death, permanent injury, miscarriages
. confinement in isolation for prolonged periods in conditions of reduced sensory stimulation
Some more information:
. The number of US women inmates has more than tripled since 1985.
. About 40% of women in prison violated drug laws. About 25% are in prison for committing
a violent crime.
. Black women's rate of imprisonment is more than 8 times , Hispanic women's rate nearly 4
times that of white women.
. Around 200,000 children under the age of 18 have an incarcerated mother. 80,000 women in
US prisons and jails are parents, many are single parents.
. 1,300 babies were born to women in prison in 1997/1998 and more than 2,200 pregnant
women were incarcerated.
STORY 1:
Annette Romo, 32, knew that her drug conviction would mean a sacrifice of four and a half years of her life behind bars in an Arizona jail. She had no idea that price would include her unborn child as well.
On the night of April 20, 1997 Annette, four months pregnant, began experience profuse vaginal bleeding. Her complaint to the guard brought only a comment that medical care was not available at that time of night. As the hours passed, despite increasingly painful bleeding and cramping, she was denied even her request for Tylenol.
By the morning shift change, dizziness from blood loss left Annette virtually immobile. The new guard also refused to allow immediate medical attention, insisting that Annette complete a written request to see medical staff. The guard later returned with questions, not action; specifically, how many pads was she using an hour? When Annette replied that she was using 15 - 20 pads every 15 minutes, the guard did not believe her.
Left alone and unable to walk, Annette tried to crawl to the bathroom but never made it. In her words, "I stood up to pull down my pants that were soaked with blood and passed out on the floor. Next thing I know I was being put on a stretcher and I was on my way to medical... I heard one of them say something about a placenta failure or losing the baby." She was rushed into surgery in critical condition, dehydrated and severely low on blood. The child was lost.
Annette's case is not uncommon. Medically untrained staff in women's prisons routinely make decisions determining the severity of an inmate's complaint and whether or not they will see a doctor. Severe conditions are often left undiagnosed and untreated with disastrous results.
STORY 2:
When Norman Little asked his niece, 17 year-old Angela Thompson, to conduct the first drug transaction of her life, she had no idea it would earn her a decade and a half behind bars in the New York prison system.
Parentless and homeless, Angela was glad for the opportunity to move into her uncle's Harlem brownstone. She earned money by helping out in the beauty parlor and restaurant he owned, and was grateful to oblige her uncle. When he asked her to handle the sale, she did that to, unaware of the price she would have to pay.
The police had staked out Little, a major Harlem dealer, and had purchased cocaine from him on four different occasions. By police accounts, Angela, who had no prior criminal record, was present at none of those sales. But at her uncle's direction on that one occasion she sold an agent just over two ounces of cocaine.
Although it was her first offence, Angela was sentenced to 15 years to life. Her lawyer tried unsuccessfully to impose a lesser penalty, calling 15 years cruel and unusual punishment. Norman Little, a kingpin in his own right, received the same sentence as his niece.
Angela's excessive sentence that does not fit the crime is emblematic of tens of thousands of women, bit players in the drug game, who trapped between drug lords and the criminal justice system. It is the non-violent, first time minority offenders like Angela who are casualties in the "War on Drugs" while kingpins virtually go free.
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