Tag: Women in Prison

Ms. Magazine’s Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program: Let Women on the Inside Know They Are Not Alone

Women in prison often spend 17 hours a day isolated in their cells, with no reading material except the Bible, or with only books and magazines they must share with hundreds of other women. And this past year has seen reading bans inside prisons grow at a more concerning rate than those in public schools and libraries.

If you would like the deep satisfaction of knowing you’re a part of letting women know they’re not alone, please make a tax-deductible contribution to the Ms. Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program.

War on Women Report: New House Speaker Is Anti-Women and Anti-Gay Rights; Shooting at Montana Planned Parenthood; Maine’s Deadliest Mass Shooting

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report: The U.S. Coast Guard covered up an investigation of systemic sexual misconduct; a man fired two rounds from a shotgun into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Montana; the deadliest mass shooting in Maine’s history; some of Rep. Mike Johnson’s most eyebrow-raising beliefs; President Biden called for $16 billion in emergency childcare funding; and more.

Iranian Women’s Rights Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh Is Headed Back to Prison

On Sunday, while attending a funeral service for 17-year-old Armita Geravand, renowned Iranian women’s rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested and beaten. A local news agency in Tehran said Sotoudeh’s grounds for arrest were “not wearing a headscarf” and “disturbing the society’s mental security.”

Other Iranian human rights activists, mourners and protesters were arrested alongside Sotoudeh—all of whom had assembled to honor Geravand, who was recently arrested and assaulted by the country’s morality police for not wearing a headscarf. Geravand eventually fell into a coma and died on Saturday, the day before the arrests.

When Any Birth Outcome Can Be a Criminal One

Anti-abortion and right-wing prosecutors and law enforcement agencies are warping child neglect, abuse and endangerment statutes to criminalize behavior during and after pregnancy.

Dobbs “will further accelerate an existing crisis, putting anyone who is pregnant or has the capacity to become pregnant at even greater risk of arrest, prosecution, and conviction,” according to a new report from Pregnancy Justice.

Nobel Prize Winner Narges Mohammadi Has Endured Personal Sacrifice Few Can Imagine

Narges Mohammadi has been chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize—a victory for her freedom and the broader movement for women’s and human rights in Iran.

Mohammadi has been at the forefront of this struggle for more than 30 years. Upon receiving the news, Narges said to her father: “Yesterday was one of the best and most glorious days in prison for all of us. The women’s ward was filled with happiness, singing, and the chant ‘Woman, Life, Freedom.’ We all held hands and formed a big circle, and as we sang, ‘Hand in hand, we become a sea, a storm, a roar,’ we felt united.”

Our work is not done to gain her freedom.

Republicans Want to Control Your Pregnancy, Not Just Your Abortion

A new Pregnancy Justice report illustrates an alarming rise in pregnancy criminalization, increasing three-fold over the past 16 years. The report finds that just five Southern states are largely responsible for this increase in arrests.

Despite the major concerns brought forth in the report, feminist organizers are not backing down. Instead, they see the findings as “a call to action, and anyone working to achieve greater bodily autonomy ought to heed that call.”

War on Women Report: AP Psych Effectively Banned in Florida; Indiana and S.C. Abortion Bans Take Effect; Trump Indicted in Fourth Criminal Case 

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report: 135 people have died in Texas prisons; two Indiana school districts must allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choosing; Advanced Placement Psychology classes are “effectively banned” in Florida; an 8-month pregnant woman was arrested and put in jail after a false facial recognition match; New Jersey supreme court sides with Catholic school that fired an unmarried pregnant teacher on religious grounds; a total ban on abortion has taken effect in Indiana, and a strict six-week ban in South Carolina; and more.

Abortion Snitching Is Already Sending People to Jail

Last month, Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days in prison because she took abortion pills when she was 17 years old. The story of Celeste and her mother—who helped her get the pills and will be sentenced in September—went national.

This case was seen as a harbinger of intimate privacy violations to come. But this case also exemplifies a disturbing phenomenon in the genesis of abortion prosecutions: friends and community members reporting on each other.

A Prison Guard Was Forced to Stay at Her Post During Labor Pains. Texas Is Fighting Compensation for Her Stillbirth.

The pregnant officer reported contraction-like pains at work, but said she wasn’t allowed to leave for hours. Her baby was delivered stillborn. If Issa had gotten to the hospital sooner, medical personnel told her, the baby would have survived, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and prison officials.

But the prison agency and the Texas attorney general’s office, which has staked its reputation on “defending the unborn” all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, are arguing the agency shouldn’t be held responsible for the stillbirth because staff didn’t break the law. Plus, they said, it’s not clear that Issa’s fetus had rights as a person.

Maine Is the First U.S. State to Center Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Legal Reforms

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed two laws last month empathetic toward people who engage in prostitution, while expanding criminalization for sex buyers and those who sexually exploit vulnerable populations, including children and people with mental disabilities.

The two new laws in Maine were inspired by the movement against domestic violence—which aims to center victims, hold abusers accountable and eliminate victim-blaming.