National NOW Passes Resolution on Women in Prison

The women of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility NOW Chapter are gratified that attendees of the 1999 National Conference addressed their concerns and passed a resolution on women in prison:

WHEREAS, the United States (U.S.) incarcerates women at a higher rate than any other industrialized nation in the world; and

WHEREAS, many of these women serve sentences which are longer than their male counterparts for similar convictions; and

WHEREAS, women incarcerated in the U.S. face a risk of abuses including sexual misconduct by staff, use of restraints, lack of women staff to work with women prisoners, and lack of or incomplete investigation of inmate complaints; and

WHEREAS, adequate medical care is withheld from prisoners, including not providing prescribed mediations and follow-up care of chronic conditions, little or no reproductive services; and women are frequently shackled during childbirth; and

WHEREAS, the Violence Against Women Act extended its protection to women outside of prisons, jails, and mental institutions while it did not extend similar protections from violence faced by incarcerated women; and

WHEREAS, women on death row face even more violations to their human rights in areas such as visitations, in body and cell searches, access to counsel, and they receive fewer privileges extended to either men or women in general custody or men on death row;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Organization for Women (NOW) support a policy demonstrating our support of initiatives such as Amnesty International’s U.S.A. Rights for All Campaign; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NOW join the efforts led by activists to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that NOW develop information materials in collaboration with relevant organizations for use by chapters to assist sisters in local jails, any prisons, and mental institutions.