Women in prison: Violation of human rights?
By: Nasirah Bailey 12/6/18
Are our rights really protected by the law?
Article 8 of human rights declares that "your rights are protected by the law." However, every day there are cases of workers in law enforcement who do the complete opposite of this, whether it’s police brutality, false imprisonment, or violation of women inside prison (because you still have rights). Women in prison experience countless incidents where their rights are violated. Women are born with these rights. Women in prison, however, have to fight for the rights they are born with.
Interview
Ms. Laura Ford worked with female prisoners in 1997 to 2012 at Philadelphia county jail.
Could you tell me a story of women in prison whose arrest was led by something causing them trauma?
Ms. Laura told me a story of a woman she worked with who had experienced trauma. The women was initially arrested for murdering a child she was babysitting, and was sentenced to a death penalty, however the women did not murder the child; the child died from a head injury, and this had traumatized the women. Once that was uncovered, the death sentence was removed. The women still was sentenced to 20-40 years.
How often were women able to get female hygiene products for themselves?
At the prison where Ms. Laura worked, they gave female prisoners free pads but anything else they had to buy themselves, and with very little money, this was hard for them.
With the little money that the women are able to make, how hard is it for women to make phone calls home?
Ms. Laura informed me that the cheapest phone call cost for the prisoners was $10 for 10 to 15 minutes. So it was hard for them to even contact their families and children with those high prices.
PBS uncovers conditions for women in prison
This video takes a close look at how women's rights are violated in prison.
Why are women in prison?
What does this mean for my community?
What does this mean for students at Carver? I know students at Carver come from all types of families and backgrounds, and someone in their family might be incarcerated. This can give them insight on what their family members could be going through. Or if they are a female student this could help them avoid things that will put them in the same predicament as these women in prison.
What does this mean for future Human rights investigations?
Now that you know about the articles of Human rights, and that not all of them are being put to action today, in investigations in the future we could explore why these human rights are not actually being used correctly and how we could change that.