Women's Health

Medical Services for Women in Prison

Adequate provision of medical care is one of the most pressing problems facing women prisoners. A review of existing studies on health care services for women inmates reveals that (1) access to treatment for both general and drug-related health problems is limited, (2) the health care provided to women prisoners is mediocre, and (3) prison medical professionals are often underskilled. In addition to suffering many of the same illnesses as their male counterparts—HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases and mental illnesses—women prisoners have medical needs over and beyond the treatment of these. Women in custody have an increased incidence of chronic health problems, including asthma, gynecological disease, nutrition problems, and convulsive seizure disorders, yet the implementation of innovative in-house medical treatment has not kept pace with the diverse needs of the ever-increasing population.

Women often require more medical attention than men, and so women's prisons have to deal with greater demand for adequate health care. This is especially true for women who enter prison pregnant and require prenatal care. Their pregnancies are often considered to be high risk, and many are complicated by drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, and sexually transmitted infections (e.g., HIV, hepatitis B). These factors, when combined with poor social support and histories of abuse, put these women and their newborns at even greater risk for increased perinatal and postnatal morbidity and mortality. Firsthand accounts suggest that many pregnant women in prison do not receive regular pelvic exams or sonograms. They also receive little to no education about prenatal care and nutrition, they are unable to alter their diets to suit their changing caloric needs, and they are subjected to remaining shackled during delivery and to being denied labor support from family members. After delivery, the new mothers are not permitted to breast-feed, and they are allotted between 24 and 72 hours to bond with their infants before the babies are turned over to family members for guardianship or enter the state's foster care system. Although some model prenatal care and parenting programs do exist, there are not enough of these programs to reach the thousands of pregnant women in U.S. prisons. Those women in prison who wish to terminate a pregnancy face additional problems, because even though according to U.S. law abortion is a fundamental right of every woman, abortion is generally not very accessible to women in prison.

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