ACLU: County jails lack policies for women's health needs
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Pennsylvania's jails were built with men in mind, and policies governing healthcare for female inmates are scattershot, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Overall, the policies at Pennsylvania jails are not meeting the reproductive health needs of incarcerated women," the report said.
The report is called Reproductive Health Locked Up: An Examination of Pennsylvania Jail Policies.
It found that while 6 percent of all female inmates are pregnant when they enter jail, many jails did not routinely test for pregnancy upon intake. This region's biggest lock-up, the Allegheny County Jail, conducted pregnancy tests if the woman's medical history seemed to warrant it, according to the report.
No county jails had policies specifically allowing incarcerated women to use contraceptives while locked up, the report found, and interruptions in birth control use could increase the possibility that they might have unintended pregnancies shortly after their release.
Of the 57 county jails in the state that house female inmates, 20 had no abortion policies. The other 37, including the Allegheny County Jail, classified it as an elective procedure, potentially leading to "significant delays in accessing this time-sensitive service," the report found.
The Allegheny County Jail, it found, had no policy on testing for sexually transmitted diseases, but did have policies on prenatal care and nutrition, and on labor and delivery.
First Published February 15, 2012 11:28 am
