Proposed bill would require Ohio prisons to provide feminine hygiene products

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio legislation doesn’t explicitly state that female hygiene merchandise must be given to these incarcerated who want them, however a brand new invoice would change that.

After getting charged with a drug offense, Melissa Corridor was sentenced to 2 years in a regional jail in West Virginia. After spending time with Ohio nonprofit Alternatives Peoples Justice Leaders, she mentioned the buckeye state is identical.

“I’ve seen females strolling round within the day room, you recognize, with blood of their pants and requests again and again,” ​Melissa Corridor mentioned. “We actually would sit there for days and be ignored.”

Talking with previously incarcerated folks throughout the state, state Rep. Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus) says she was disturbed that individuals in prisons and jails didn’t have ample entry to the requirements they deserve.

“People who’re incarcerated, girls who’re incarcerated, are people, too,” Humphrey mentioned. “If I am being sincere, that is one thing that ought to have been applied a very long time in the past.”

The lawmaker launched Home Invoice 743, a invoice that will require correctional amenities to supply inmates with an ample provide of female hygiene merchandise. It could additionally make certain the establishments have sufficient product.

Though simply launched, it has already obtained bipartisan help.

“It is a human proper, a human rights challenge,” the Democrat mentioned.

Humphrey is aware of the invoice has a slim likelihood of getting by way of with solely 6 weeks left to go, however she does not have an opponent for the election, so she is aware of she goes to reintroduce it subsequent yr. She mentioned that is her manner of placing the concept into folks’s minds.

Because the Ohio legislation is imprecise about hygiene merchandise for inmates, Information 5 known as and emailed the Ohio Division of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) to get readability. Listed below are the questions that have been requested:

• Do you’ve a press release on the invoice?
• What’s your coverage on menstrual merchandise?
• Are they free?
• May inmates purchase them?
• What number of merchandise do inmates obtain in the event that they want them?
• Is there a restrict?
• Do you consider the division at present has ample funding from the state for these merchandise?
• Has the nationwide tampon scarcity impacted the division?

The division solely answered two out of eight questions.

“Female hygiene merchandise can be found to the feminine inhabitants without charge,” the ODRC spokesperson mentioned. “Provides can be found in a discrete space the place they are often obtained at any time. These things are additionally obtainable for buy within the commissary.”

Together with offering merchandise, the invoice would additionally require the amenities to have a spread of sizes, a written protocol in place and a sanitary process for disposing of merchandise. Additionally, they cannot deny female hygiene merchandise or the usage of showering or bathing amenities whereas experiencing menstruation, no matter whether or not the inmates are separated from the final inhabitants for diploma of cost or disciplinary causes.

“I believe that it is fantastic that that some consideration is definitely going for that as a result of it is vitally, very wanted,” Corridor mentioned.

Corridor, who’s now three years sober, mentioned these merchandise may have made her time far more productive, and it will have made her re-entry simpler.

Comply with WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Fb.