Control your bleeding, sluts

Talk about cruel and unusual

The Arizona Legislature is considering a bill that would provide incarcerated women with an unlimited supply of feminine hygiene products, including tampons, pads, cups and sponges.

Consider? As in, currently they limit them?

Currently, incarcerated women get 12 free pads each month. They must ask an officer if they need more, must pay for them, and may only possess up to 24 at a time. Unlike in other states, if they want tampons, they must buy them.

Ohhhhhh for god’s sake. Women can’t help how much they bleed. It’s not possible to control the flow to suit the number of pads available. Menstruating isn’t some whim that women have.

Numerous women testified how humiliating and frustrating the current situation is.

“Bloodstained pants, bartering and begging for pads and tampons was a regular occurrence,” Adrienne Kitcheyan said of her six years in Perryville.

Former inmate Tuesday Brower said she usually wore two or three pads stacked on top of each other every day while she worked a yard-crew job so that she wouldn’t stain her pants.

“I would take the pad apart and make three tampons because it would hold better at work and I have received a ticket before for contraband because you’re not allowed to do that,” she said.

Kitcheyan said if blood stained a prisoner’s pants, she would be given a ticket for being out of dress code, which could result in her losing visitation rights, phone calls and the ability to purchase store items — including tampons and pads.

Sue Ellen Allen, who served seven years in Perryville, said officers can and do deny requests for more pads.

“The humiliation is really something you carry with you forever,” she said.

It sounds like something Arpaio dreamed up.

10 Responses to “Control your bleeding, sluts”