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No Tampons or Underwear Provided
Challenging the Inhumanity of Jail
One of my friends is 82 years old. She is a widow. Today she shared an experience she had 40 years ago, in 1982.
One of her neighbors was taken to jail for putting her husband in the hospital. Except, it wasn’t that simple. Her husband abused her. Regularly.
One night, they were at the top of the stairs and he was hitting her. In self defense, she tried to push him away.
You know how this goes.
He fell down the stairs, broke his arm, and was hospitalized. He called the cops while he was in the hospital and she woke to a knock at her front door. They took her to jail in her pajamas. She didn’t have her underwear on at the time and they didn’t permit her to put any on before taking her away.
My friend visited her in jail. Because my friend was an elder in her church, she was able to freely visit this neighbor. Sometimes even when the lawyer didn’t have access. She visited the woman every day during her lunch hour.
My friend’s neighbor spent 40 days in jail. She didn’t have underwear or menstrual protection for the first two weeks. After that, she was able to get it from the jail’s “store”.
