The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has shocked people across the nation. This decision has left devastating impacts on many, including one group often left out of the discussion: incarcerated individuals in women’s prisons.
Policing and regulating women’s bodies has long been a form of control and punishment used to strip women of their agency and autonomy, remind them that they have no rights over their own bodies, and silence their voices. For many women and gender nonconforming people across the United States, the rollback of Roe v. Wade is one of the first times they have been confronted with the reality of their government returning to these kinds of draconian laws.
Yet, for people incarcerated in women’s prisons, who are predominantly Black and other women of color, this reality never went away in the first place. That’s precisely why this moment, when so many Americans are focusing their attention on both reproductive rights and the criminalization of individuals’ bodies, presents an opportunity to bring attention to a U.S. prison system that produces, facilitates and rationalizes harm.
