Maine guarantees menstrual products in prisons, despite rep’s ‘country club’ objection

Prisoner and women’s rights advocates are celebrating a new law that guarantees access to menstrual products for incarcerated people. Signed into law on May 23, the bill ensures that female-bodied detainees will have unrestricted access to pads, tampons and other menstrual products in state prisons and county jails, where the majority of incarcerated Mainers are held.

“Unrestricted access to menstrual products by incarcerated persons is an issue of human dignity,” said Sen. Charlotte Warren (D-Hallowell), who sponsored LD 628. “Throughout our legislative process we heard stories of individuals who were given only a limited number of menstrual products or were forced to use the few funds they had to purchase these necessities. It’s a matter of sanitation and health and should not be limited.”

Warren said that she is “so pleased” that Governor Janet Mills signed the bill, adding, “This step provides the decency that incarcerated persons deserve.”

The bill made national headlines after Republican state Rep. Richard Pickett of Dixfield argued during a committee hearing that such protections would run the risk of making Maine’s jails too comfortable.

“Quite frankly, and I don’t mean this in any disrespect, the jail system and the correctional system was never meant to be a country club,” he said, according to Bangor Daily News reporter Alex Acquisto. “They have a right to have these and they have them. If that wasn’t the case, then I would be supporting the motion, but they do.”

In 2017, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced that free menstrual products would be guaranteed for all women, transgender and nonbinary people who need them, but that law did not apply to state- and county-run facilities.

“We are incredibly excited that the legislature is acknowledging the medical needs of incarcerated menstruating people,” said Whitney Parrish, director of policy and program for the Maine Women’s Lobby. “It’s a matter of human rights and dignity.”

Parrish acknowledged that while the new law is “a tremendous step,” she said there is still “a lot of work to be done to evaluate the conditions of our incarcerated female population.”

The number of women held at Maine Correctional Center in Windham has grown tenfold from just 25 in 2002 to more than 220 as of April— a rise the editorial board of the BDN recently wrote is “largely fueled by the opioid epidemic and an overly punitive criminal justice system.”