New Bill Seeks to Make Menstrual Products Free in Arizona Prisons After Years of Inmates Forced to Work for Basic Hygiene

Former inmates say conditions for access to menstrual products were selective and arbitrary

PHOENIX — Two women who met in an Arizona prison describe the treatment of menstruating inmates as barbaric. They now say a new bill could finally end the practice of forcing incarcerated women to work for basic hygiene products.

Amanda Zaun and Christina Perez served time in multiple facilities, including Arizona State Prison Complex Perryville in Goodyear. Now on parole and preparing for marriage, the women described the conditions for menstrual products as inconsistent and unfair.

Zaun, who served six years in three states including Arizona for fraud, said she had to go to the bubble, the central area where correctional officers stay, to ask for products during her time in medium custody.

In contrast, inmates in Perryville's Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz minimum security units could simply walk into the yard office and pick out menstrual products.

'It depends on the situation in prison for everything,' Zaun said.

When Perez was in her early 20s, she was given 12 pads per month along with other hygiene products known as state issue. Toothpaste and a small bar of soap are also typically included.

The average woman uses 25 pads per cycle.

Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, a Democrat, is sponsoring House Bill 2529 to change these conditions. The bill would make menstrual products free or under $5 in Arizona prisons and ensure pregnant inmates are exempt from medical fees.

Hamilton inherited the language from former Rep. Athena Salaman, who resigned at the end of 2023. Stahl Hamilton first sponsored the bill in 2024.

She said she hopes the bill will see progress if Arizona's Democratic Party gains a majority in the next legislative session.

The average female inmate in Arizona earns less than $1 per hour. This means an inmate might have to work an entire shift to afford one menstrual product.

Zaun said other inmates would use tampon strings to thread their eyebrows, use pads to clean floors, and make earplugs from menstrual products.

"There's nothing they can do about it and that's the problem is nobody's helping them on the outfit, nobody's fighting for them," Zaun said. "You can gripe and yell all you want to. It's not going to change anything for us, the inmates."

Decades of challenges

The Prison Flow Project founder Miriam Vishniac studied menstrual product access in incarcerated populations when she was a public policy student at George Washington University in 2015.

"You can't put it on SNAP. It's not part of the WIC program," Vishniac said. "I started thinking about what populations have issues accessing this stuff."

She found incarcerated individuals to be among the most deeply vulnerable to deprivation of menstrual products.

The federal Office on Women's Health recommends changing a pad or tampon every few hours, equating to around three to five pads per day.

Before 2018, a package of 10 to 12 generic pads per month per inmate was standard.

In late 2019, more inmates wrote to KJZZ claiming guards continued to withhold toilet paper and pads. The pandemic revealed more problems with basic hygiene products.

One inmate revealed in an email that it was necessary to use personal shampoo, body wash and soap to sanitize cells.

History of advocacy

Former Arizona inmate Kara Williams now works as an organizer for the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. She experienced the problem firsthand and now advocates for incarcerated women.

Williams said responses from guards can deter women from asking for more products.

"I've had officers throw it on my bed when I asked for it like I was an inconvenience," Williams said. "Inmates are made to feel like less than human when they have to ask for it."

The Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act was signed into law by former Governor Doug Ducey in June 2018. The law requires state prisons to provide unlimited menstrual products free of charge.

Democratic state Senator Tony Navarrete sponsored the act. It came four years after a federal law required the same for federal prisons and three years after Rep. Salaman brought internal change at the state Department of Corrections in 2018.

ACLU Arizona staff attorney Lauren Beall has been part of a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections since 2012. The lawsuit centers on what Beall called horrific things that happen to women in terms of childbirth and reproductive health.

"I have talked to a lot of people who are pregnant who aren't getting enough food. There is a rule that their caloric needs are supposed to be increased," Beall said. "What that generally looks like is an extra little carton of milk or an extra piece of bread or an extra can of tuna. It's not enough."

Current situation

As of June, the Department of Corrections reported housing 3,386 women at Perryville state prison in Goodyear and one woman in Florence's Lewis prison, which includes the state's death row.

Arizona state prisons have seen the number of women incarcerated increase more than 20-fold since 1978, according to a 2017 report by the Vera Institute of Justice.

Hamilton credited Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, with innovative new practices to provide better rehabilitation.

She pointed to Perryville as an example of proper rehabilitation techniques. It is Arizona's sole women's prison and incorporates yoga and art therapies.

Art of Our Soul opened a studio at Perryville in October 2024. Hamilton credited this with being one of the techniques the facility is using to encourage wellness and rehabilitation instead of recidivism.

What's next

Hamilton hopes HB 2529 will codify sweeping protections for female and pregnant inmates in law.

The bill seeks to increase the level of care for pregnant prisoners before, during and after childbirth. Restricting forced labor induction and physical restraints are among the proposed changes.

Hamilton credits the Arizona Department of Corrections with innovative new practices but advocates want this protection codified in law so it does not depend on agency directors or governors deciding it is important.

Williams said she would like to hope the problem does not happen again because now it is law. But she noted the history of the Department of Corrections and the state of Arizona tells her they have to keep a close eye on them.

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Sources consulted for this article:

• https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2026/04/29/disparities-in-menstrual-product-access-in-arizonas-prisons-could-be-solved-by-this-bill-but-its-unlikely-to-pass-again/
• https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/bill-to-solve-disparities-in-menstrual-product-access-in-arizonas-prisons-likely-to-fail-again,686924
• https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-menstrual-periods-tampons-pads-law-dignity-prison-11719533/