12 pads a month, no tampons: Is that enough for Arizona’s incarcerated women?

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this story misstated the cost of additional menstrual pads requested by inmates. They are free. The story also clarified comments made by Rep. Anthony Kern.

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.

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

Former prisoners and advocates say that's not acceptable.

Arizona has one state prison that houses women. The Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Goodyear is about 30 minutes west of downtown Phoenix. About 4,000 women were imprisoned in Arizona as of November 2017, according to an Arizona Department of Corrections report.

The bill passed its first hurdle this week, narrowly winning approval from the all-male House Military, Veterans and Regulatory Affairs Committee. Several dissenting members said they were doubtful a problem exists.

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.

READ MORE: A sexist culture endures at Arizona Capitol, insiders say

What a menstruating woman needs in prison

The average menstruation lasts two to seven days, according to Mayo Clinic, and happens every 21 to 35 days. Most hygiene-product companies advise changing a pad or tampon every four to six hours to prevent odor and infection.

If a woman has an average menstruation of five days and follows guidelines to change her pad or tampon every six hours, she would need 20 pads or tampons per period. Some women experience heavy menstruation and require more.

Separate from the health risks, a woman who doesn't have enough pads or tampons will likely end up bleeding on her clothes.

$3.99 box of tampons costs 27 hours of work

Rep. Athena Salman, D-Tempe, introduced House Bill 2222.

"In our prison system, a 16-count of Always ultra-thin, long pads cost $3.20," Salman told the House committee this week.

Base pay for prisoners starts at $0.15 per hour, which means a pack of pads would require about 21 hours of work.

MORE: Arizona lawmakers want to make doctors ask women why they want abortion

A 20-count box of Playtex Super Gentle Glide tampons is $3.99. So a woman who wants tampons and uses one box per period would have to work up to 27 hours to cover the cost of her own menstruation.

Salman said she was inspired by a Colorado law passed last year that allocated $40,000 to give female inmates free tampons.

In order to cover the cost of the additional products, her bill would appropriate $80,000 from the state general fund to the Arizona Department of Corrections, a number Salman said she calculated because the state has twice as many women in prison as Colorado.

Perryville Warden Kim Currier testified that in the past seven and a half months, the prison has spent about $33,000 on pads.

Former inmates talk stains, humiliation

The Department of Corrections has taken a neutral position on the bill, a standard position for a state agency on proposed legislation. Currier did share her thoughts on the issue during the committee hearing.

"I’m not aware that there’s a problem with this," she said, in part because there are few formal reports from inmates about this being a problem.

Civil-rights lawyer Kirstin Eidenbach said that is because inmates have recently found it more difficult to contact the ACLU of Arizona and are afraid of retaliation.

"Our recent tour to Perryville leads us to believe that this is very much still an issue," she said, adding that women with endometriosis or just a heavy flow sometimes use five pads at once to cope.

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.

MORE: Roberts: Arizona abortion bill's only aim is to make women miserable

Men debate women's-health issue

Multiple times throughout the hearing, male House committee members questioned why this committee would hear a bill on menstrual products.

House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, R-Mesa, decides which bills are assigned to which committees.

Matt Specht, the House Republican communications director, told The Republic that the committee handles regulatory affairs and often hears legislation about the Department of Corrections.

Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, said giving prisoners more feminine-hygiene products would likely result in "a lot of frivolous actions."

Earlier in the hearing, Rep. Travis Grantham, R-Gilbert, expressed concerns that inmates "wanting to cause trouble" or who "have some sort of mental issue" could ask for 10 items a day just to "flush them down a toilet or stuff them in a pipe to just vandalize the cell."

After more than an hour and a half of testimony, Democratic state Reps. Richard Andrade, Eric Descheenie, Diego Espinoza and Ray Martinez and Republican Rep. Noel Campbell voted in favor of the bill.

"To all the women out there who have been embarrassed and humiliated ... we need to apologize," Campbell said, although he called it "another feel-good bill" he would support in the future only with changes to its language.

Rep. Eric Descheenie, D-Chinle, was more sympathetic in his comments on the bill. “It sounds like we’re clearly harming people even more when we humiliate people on levels that no man can understand,” he said. “None of us will ever understand what that feels like and how that will affect someone.”

Republican Reps. Kern, Travis Grantham, Mark Finchem and Jay Lawrence voted against it.

"I’m almost sorry I heard the bill," said Lawrence, the committee chairman. "I didn’t expect to hear pads and tampons and the problems of periods."

A trending topic

The issue has recently gained attention across the country. Last year, the Federal Bureau of Prisons issued a memo requiring all federal prisons to provide free maxi pads, panty liners and two sizes of tampons "in sufficient frequency and number."

The memo noted that the policy change "should not significantly increase overall expenditures for female hygiene products beyond current levels."

In 2016, Netflix's "Orange is the New Black" depicted a prison where pads and tampons are deemed "inessential" and inmates are forced to buy their own, leading to chaos.

Many people across the U.S. have also questioned whether it is ethical to charge sales tax on menstrual products.

Last month, an Arizona House committee advanced a bill exempting diapers and feminine hygiene products like tampons from sales taxes, but its fate remains unclear because it would cut state revenue.

Both the tax bill and the prison bill still need a vote of the full House before moving to the Senate for consideration.

READ MORE:

No girl should be that green: I still believe in tampons

Mom tries the Diva Cup so you won't have to (you're welcome)