Access has also been a persistent issue in immigration detention centers.
When Yraida Faneite was on trial for drug-related charges, the judge had to halt proceedings at one point because her period was so heavy that blood was running down her legs.
The same struggle followed her into a federal prison in Florida after she was convicted. For about a decade, officials allowed her only a small ration of menstrual products, and she couldn’t afford extra pads from the commissary. She bartered with other women. On her worst days, she tore up her own T-shirts and used them as makeshift pads.
When she told officers she needed to see a doctor and couldn’t safely continue a mandatory kitchen shift, she said, she was placed in solitary confinement. She eventually found out that her heavy bleeding was caused by cysts.
“I didn’t have enough napkins to use during my period. … No matter what you say, they don’t care,” recalled Faneite, who was released from prison in 2006 and went on to found the prison reentry nonprofit YG Institute.
Her experience echoes what researchers, advocates and formerly incarcerated people describe across prisons and jails nationwide: Even where menstrual products are available, limited supplies, low-quality products, strict disciplinary rules and delays in medical care can result in incarcerated people facing potentially avoidable health issues or disciplinary write-ups.
Access to menstrual products also has been a persistent issue in immigration detention centers, with recent reports and lawsuits alleging that women in some facilities have been unable to obtain or outright denied feminine hygiene products despite federal standards and law requiring sufficient and timely access.
A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy organization, says that menstruation is still regularly treated as a disciplinary matter — through contraband rules, work violations and sanitation write-ups — even in prisons and jails that provide free products.
These disciplinary actions can affect everything from parole eligibility to access to programming and services.
Women make up a growing share of the state prison population, which rose about 5% nationwide from 2022 to 2023, according to the latest data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
In recent years, more states have begun taking steps to improve access to menstrual products in jails and prisons, and to address the overall conditions that shape incarcerated women’s experiences.
The Ohio legislature last month passed legislation to strengthen access to period products for incarcerated people in jails and prisons. The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature. And Wisconsin lawmakers introduced a bill on the issue this month.
At least 24 states and Washington, D.C., require that people in state prisons or local jails have free access to menstrual products, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
