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The prisons in Mexico they hide important human rights issues; Since the start of the pandemic, national and international civil organizations have warned about overcrowding, the lack of basic resources for sanitation and the difficult access to medicines inside prisons. But things are more complicated for women.
In Mexico, women represent 5.7% of the total population deprived of liberty, according to ENPOL data (National Survey of the Population Deprived of Liberty) 2021 of the Inegi. This produces an important invisibility and omission of their needs and therefore, violence and inequalities in all stages of their criminal process and of course in their life in prison.
Menstruating, preventing unwanted pregnancies, detecting breast or cervical cancer early, having a desired pregnancy in dignity and thinking about reintegration is a way of the cross for most of the women. women in jail.
More violent arrests
The survey results showed that women face violent arrests: 8 out of 10 women who were arrested faced some type of psychological violence and 6 out of 10 suffered assaults during their arrests.
Unlike the male population, who mostly declared having committed a crime, 68.7% of women in prison state that they are there because they implicated them in a crime or because they have not been able to prove their innocence.
Compared to the detention process faced by men, women are more likely to face irregularities or violence in due process. While 19.2% of the men were arrested with an arrest warrant, only 16.8% of the women. For their part, 26 out of every 100 women were detained taking them out of the place where they were while only 19 out of every 100 men.
Additionally: 15% of the women deprived of liberty said that the authorities who detained them undressed them during “the inspection.”
The figures also reflected that 12 out of 100 women were injured or attacked with a fracture, blow or cut and 6 out of 100 received an injury that could have effectively put their life or the functioning of a vital organ at risk.
The human rights violations when facing a criminal process they are general, but being a woman implies multiplying them.
Inside things get worse
Inequalities do not end with the detention process; women also face greater challenges within federal and state prisons. Policies related to sexual and reproductive health should be a priority in women’s prisons, but they are not.
The survey showed important shortcomings in the availability and access to basic prevention and protection monitoring for women.
Only 40% of women deprived of liberty in Mexico had a papanicolaou in the last year; a preventive cancer procedure that is recommended every six months for women who are sexually active and of which 60% of female prisoners were left out.
Women menstruate, but the budget of the prisons he has not found out; About 65% of women deprived of liberty state that they have to ask their relatives for feminine hygiene products – from shampoo to tampons. Which leaves us wondering what could have happened during the entire time that the prisons prohibited visits due to a pandemic.
Not only is menstruating an ordeal, sex life is too: only 38% of female prisoners received free contraceptives when they requested them in the penitentiary.
In the Mexican prisons for women there are 1,113 women who are or were pregnant during their stay and of them, about 20% said that they did not receive or received timely care to monitor the pregnancy.
Two out of every 10 women in prisons have had abortions, nobody knows the conditions.
Additionally, more women than the male population in prison do not receive drugs to treat diseases. The most alarming figure: 17% of women living with VIH In the prisons of Mexico, he does not take medication to treat himself.
The overcrowding and the lack of basic resources to maintain the health rules in the face of Covid-19 only appear as one more challenge. Access to basic health is still an ideal for women in prison.
Mental health does not reign in prison either
Although some activities designed for recreation, education and leisure prevail in prisons, which by the way are basic human rights, this does not help to eradicate mental health problems of people deprived of liberty.
Women, compared to men, showed a higher incidence of suicidal thoughts and low expectations regarding their departure and social reintegration.
18 out of 100 women reported having thought about taking their own life at least once during their stay in prison. And while 53% of men believe that being in prison will make it difficult for them to find work when they leave, 61% of women have this concern.
Women also think that reintegration into their circle of friends will be more complex in relation to men: 31 out of 100 women think that this integration will be difficult; for men the figure is 28 out of 100.
The gender perspective is fundamental for the elaboration of public policies in matters of justice and security. Allocating resources to guarantee the basic rights of the population deprived of liberty is an urgent task. And putting reintegration as a transversal axis in the penal system is the pending task.
ana.garcia@eleconomista.mx
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