The Virginia Department of Corrections (DOC) has come up with a new way to be dehumanizing and hostile to women: they’re now dictating to visitors who menstruate what method they can use during visitations.

In a letter shared by prison reform activists on social media, the DOC’s warden says they will be banning tampons and menstrual cups from being used by visitors. They will be doing body scans and if they believe someone is in violation, they can become barred from seeing their loved ones.

This is incredibly invasive and unnecessary. It comes across as a punishment for people who have connection to incarcerated people. They are literally telling people who aren’t in their case what they can and cannot do with their vaginas.

This should be unacceptable.

I’m not buying their reasoning that it’s to prevent smuggling drugs. Couldn’t someone use a pad if they’re willing to use tampon for transportation? Why isn’t this rule for everyone that works or visits prisons? If they’re experts on safety, why can’t they think of an effective way that actually addresses the root problem: they can’t handle the flow of illegal drugs in their system. Why should innocent people suffer the consequences of their inadequacy?

Numerous Twitter users have pointed out that if the DOC really cared they would implement this rule for guards, who have been an integral part of prison black markets since the beginning.

x Raise your hand if you know why it's ironic that the prison will not apply this extreme restriction on guards. https://t.co/XCMBYtO2xo — Natalie Baker (@NatalieBakerrr) September 24, 2018

x VA jailers tryna ban women wearing tampons or menstrual cups from visitation. WTF.



It's guards that run the dope trade, not visiting fam on their moon. https://t.co/6JZuHllVUJ — IWOC (@IWW_IWOC) September 23, 2018

ThinkProgress reports that attempts by prisons to control menstrual product use have failed in court before.

When prisons have attempted to control tampon use in the past, courts have found the practice to be illegal. In March 2017, private prison operator CoreCivic reached an agreement with women who filed suit after a CoreCivic prison in Tennessee ordered them to remove their tampons or sanitary pads to prove they were menstruating and not trying to smuggle in contraband, according to the Associated Press.

The new Virginia policy is slated to start next month. Here’s hoping that the DOC wisens up—or the courts force them to cut it out.