USA

“We know we’ve made our mistakes, and we are paying for them. But we can’t let this system take away our basic human rights.” -- A prisoner at Valley State Women’s Prison, California.

No Exceptions: Violations of the Rights of Women in Prison

Overview Police Brutality Human Rights Violations on the US-Mexico Border Abuse of Prisoners Women in Detention Arbitary detention of asylum-seekers Super-maximum security Death Penalty Racism and the death penalty International Context FAQ

Prisoners have just as much right as everyone else to be treated humanely. But in the United States, women are often the victims of prison regimes which show no regard for human dignity or for international human rights standards.

If you’re a woman prisoner, you may be guarded by male officers who are allowed to touch every part of your body during searches, and to view you while you are undressed. If you break disciplinary rules, you may have to spend 22 or more hours a day in your cell, denied all privacy from the male guards.

Across the US, procedures for dealing with sexual assault by prison staff have often proved ineffective. And if you are abused, you may be too afraid to speak out, because you’ve seen how guards treat women who stand up for themselves.

Introduction

There are 138,000 women in US prisons, at least four times as many as there were in 1980. Over three-quarters of these women were sentenced for non-violent offences. And nearly half were sexually or physically abused prior to their incarceration.

Women have suffered a horrifying range of human rights violations in prisons across the US. Some violations arise from the misuse of methods of restraint. Prisoners are commonly shackled during transportation, for example, even if they pose no threat to guards. Pregnant women are no exception to this rule, despite the risk of miscarriage if they fall. Shackles are sometimes not even taken off when women go into labour.

Restraining chairs are another method of restricting inmates’ movement. In some cases they have become a routine method of control, despite the risks posed to prisoners’ health by prolonged immobilization. They have also reportedly been used to torture and punish inmates. In 1996, after guards at Sacramento County Jail, California, overheard a woman prisoner complaining about her treatment, she was hooded and strapped into a restraining chair. In 1997, another woman in the same jail was reportedly held in the chair, naked and hooded, for more than eight hours in full view of male guards and other jail staff who taunted and ridiculed her.

Sexual abuse is another all-too-common form of human rights abuse against women prisoners. A lawsuit taken out by women prisoners at Albion prison in New York State describes their sexual abuse by male guards, stating that officers disregarded routine search procedures in order to “sexually grope and fondle” them, and to make “sexual and obscene comments” about their bodies.

“Nearly every inmate we interviewed reported various sexually aggressive acts of guards,” stated a 1995 Justice Department investigation into Michigan prisons. “A number of women reported that officers routinely ‘corner’ women in their cells or on their work details… and press their bodies against them, mocking sexual intercourse. Women described incidents where guards exposed their genitals while making sexually suggestive remarks.”

In 15 states, there are still no laws criminalizing sexual contact between staff and inmates. The severe disparity of power between guards and inmates means there is no such thing as real consensual sexual relations in prisons. However, many states don’t treat “consensual” sex between staff and inmates as a crime.

The application of equal opportunities laws in the US means that men cannot be refused employment in female facilities. Therefore, male guards may be required to conduct pat-frisk body searches, and to view women while they are undressed. The procedures are open to deliberate abuse by guards, and according to the UN Human Rights Committee have “led to serious allegations of sexual abuse of women.” And no matter how scrupulously male guards carry out these routine procedures, women’s privacy is attacked.

[ back to top ]

Health Issues

International standards state that inmates have a right to adequate medical care. But all too often, US prisons conspicuously fail to meet women’s health needs.

Sherrie Chapman, a prisoner in the California Institute for Women, found suspicious lumps in her breasts in 1985. She says she pleaded for medical treatment, telling medical staff at the prison that she had two close relatives who had died of breast cancer. After nine years she was finally examined by outside medical staff. The lumps were diagnosed as malignant, and both of her breasts removed.

Lack of appropriate mental health care is just as much of an issue. Many women experiencing mental problems appear to be given medication almost as a matter of course because other forms of more appropriate treatment, such as counselling, are unavailable. A 1995 US Justice Department investigation into an Alabama prison for women concluded that the prison’s mental health care program was “almost inexistent.”

The consequences of inadequate care can be fatal. Jane B., a 36-year-old mother of two serving a two-year sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility, suffered from a severe gastro-intestinal disorder. Despite her requests for help, according to a lawsuit on behalf of all the women in the prison, she was not given effective medical or psychological care. She slowly starved to death.

"Supermax Prisons

In California, female prisoners classified as a “threat to safety or security” may be held in long-term isolation in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Valley State Prison. Women in the SHU spend between 22 and 24 hours a day in small, concrete cells, without work or education, and eat, wash and defecate observed by male guards. Every time the women leave or return to their cells, they are strip-searched and shackled.

A large proportion of women in the SHU have been diagnosed as suffering from mental health problems. Inmates may spend years, or even their whole sentence, confined to the SHU for successive, and in some cases minor, disciplinary infractions.

A psychiatrist who has investigated similar units has told Amnesty International that the harsh conditions can induce psychosis or exacerbate existing mental illness. A lawyer representing women at the prison told Amnesty International that one woman constantly had her stay in the unit extended because she covered a viewing slot in her cell door when using the toilet, in breach of the rules. The repeated punishment of the woman’s desire for privacy had mentally broken her.

“Supermax” facilities such as the Valley State SHU are proliferating throughout the USA prison system -- sometimes an entire prison is a “supermax” facility. Many of the conditions in these facilities violate international standards for the treatment of prisoners.

A culture of abuse

Ill-treatment, rape and other human rights abuse in US prisons occur partly because guards know that they will probably never be disciplined. In many cases the suffering of women prisoners is compounded because they are too afraid to speak out for fear of reprisals. Following its investigation of prisons in Michigan, the Justice Department said violations of women’s rights go unreported because of the “widespread fear of retaliation and vulnerability felt by these women.”

During a 1994 lawsuit by women prisoners, a Washington DC court described the policies and procedures of the District prison authorities for dealing with sexual misconduct as “of little value because [they] address the problems of sexual harassment of women prisoners with no staff training, inconsistent reporting practices, cursory investigations and timid sanctions.” The court said prison officials had coerced women prisoners and staff into silence, and had insulated themselves from scrutiny.

The culture of abuse can be all-enveloping. A former prison guard in Michigan told Amnesty International that other staff harassed and intimidated her when she reported the abuse of a prisoner. She said that she was attacked by an unknown person in an area of the prison that was out of bounds to prisoners. She added that after her attack she heard someone say, “we got that snitching... bitch.”

The mechanisms to prevent these human rights abuses and to provide redress are clearly inadequate. Prison standards are deficient and few states have effective, independent bodies to monitor how inmates are treated. As a result, hidden behind the prison walls, untold numbers of women continue to suffer human rights abuses at the hands of government authorities.

[ back to top ]