Resource: Health Rights Violations of California Women Prisoners

By: Paromita Pain

January 1, 2012

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

A September 13, 2011 report in the Los Angeles Times stated that in a bid to bring down crime rates and reduce recidivism in California, thousands of female inmates who have children would be released to serve the remainder of their sentences at home. But activists working in the area of women and prisons say the move will be a futile one because most incarcerated women are too broken in health to be effective individuals. Health care services are blatantly atrocious in California’s prisons, say activists. This is an exploratory study of the health rights violations of women prisoners in the California prison system through the experiences of the many women who have served time and are now battling the health effects of their incarceration.