If our country wants to prevent a constant revolving door between the streets and prison, we need to make sure prisoners are treated humanely and given a chance to rehabilitate their lives. That can’t happen if prisoners’ basic needs aren’t being met, and a report released Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) “has not managed female inmates strategically” and “needs to take additional steps … to ensure that female inmates needs are met at the institutional level.” The report noted that BOP, which currently incarcerates nearly 13,000 female inmates, “did not fully consider the needs of female inmates” when it came to “trauma treatment programming, pregnancy programming, and feminine hygiene.” Source: Bureau of Prisons One way to help start addressing part of this problem is the bipartisan FIRST STEP Act, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed earlier this year by a vote of 360-59. The bill would ban the shackling of women during childbirth and currently awaits a vote in the Senate. Meanwhile, the bipartisan Pregnant Women in Custody Act would also prohibit the shackling of federal prisoners who are pregnant or who have given birth within the last eight weeks and establish…
See original post: OP-ED: Our Prisons Need Major Reforms to Protect Female Inmates and Their Children