By Faith Fistler / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

While Christina Ray was incarcerated, she experienced the effects of limited feminine hygiene products firsthand.

"When I was incarcerated at Franklin County Jail, literally every morning they would throw in a supply bag and we'd have, like, six rolls of toilet paper and six giant, disgusting pads," Ray said. "And then the women would fight and divvy out everything and there was not always enough."

For many female inmates, access to adequate feminine hygiene products has been a challenge. House Bill 30, introduced in July of 2022, would require all correctional facilities that house female inmates to provide adequate feminine hygiene products, access to showers and proper sanitary disposal methods for inmates.

After 11 months, the bill had its first hearing on June 6, where it received feedback from legislators to help it progress forward.

The primary sponsor of the bill, Rep. Latyna Humphrey, D-Columbus, was first approached about the issue by a Dayton community activist.

"That was a concern for me, but also a personal story for me because I am the daughter of a returning citizen, my mother was incarcerated," Humphrey said. "Her being an activist was helpful, but also kind of having my own personal story with it was the driving force behind why I introduced the bill."

Humphrey said her passion for prison reform stems from her mother's journey, who she and her family were able to support while she was incarcerated.

"But what I will say is that not every inmate and offender is as blessed as my mother was to have me as an adult and her mother and my sister to help in ways that we did," Humphrey said.

The bill would cover the three state correctional facilities, Ohio Reformatory for Women, Dayton Correctional Institution and Northeast Reintegration Center, as well as county-run facilities and city-run jails throughout the state.

"But the reality is only where the women are housed, is where the products would potentially be," Humphrey said.

The bill currently is only focused on county and municipal facilities and does not extend to private prisons.

During Ray's incarceration at both Ohio Reformatory for Women and Dayton Correctional Institution from 2014 to 2018, pads were provided monthly, and tampons were only available through the commissary.

Now a graduate student in social work at Ohio State, Ray is a member of multiple prison reform advocacy groups. After speaking with several current inmates at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, Ray learned conditions have improved. Inmates are now provided individual pads and tampons.

However, only regular size tampons are readily available for free at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, other sizes have to be purchased. With state pay not rising with the cost of inflation, different sized tampons are more expensive, Ray said.

Cleanliness within the prison is another issue with the majority of the responsibility falling to the inmates themselves.

"Some people would have the showers, some people would be mopping the halls," Ray said. "And while we did our best, we were limited with what cleaning products we have."

Inmates only have access to showers during set times while laundry services are only available during specific days.

"It's really important to be able to have those, so you're literally not walking around in your own blood," she said.

House Bill 30 states that different sized tampons and pads should be available and distributed based on individual needs at no extra cost to the inmates. The bill also stipulates that inmates should have unlimited access to showers during menstruation. However, the bill makes no mention of more accessible laundry services.

"I like to do it little by little and bit by bit," Humphrey said. "If you put too much in a thing, that sometimes can turn some of my colleagues off, whether it's important or not."

"So I think that is something that if we get it, you know, out of the house, and if we get it out of the Senate, I think it's something that we can look back at, or even create another bill for," she said.

A key factor of the improvements already taking effect in correctional facilities could be attributed to Humphrey's work with prison advocacy groups.

Humphrey's collaboration with Ohio Rehabilitation and Corrections has provided a surplus of feminine hygiene products for all three women's correctional facilities since November, Humphrey said.

"It's important again to clarify that things like this could change," she said. "We're advocating, and I'm proud of the advocacy that we started last year, but it's just important to codify it into law, so that won't change."

Humphrey is confident that the bill could become a reality due to actions already being put into effect by prison reform groups.

"Because it's already being done, there is a possibility that this bill could get passed...," she said. "It is not necessarily a bipartisan bill as of yet, but I've received a lot of guidance from my colleagues across the aisle to make this bill essentially the best it could be."

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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This week, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people with federal death row convictions to life sentences without parole.

Groups working on criminal justice reform said it is a start but they would like to see him do more. According to the advocacy group FWD.US, one in two Americans has experienced incarceration in their immediate family and one in three has a criminal record.

Zoë Towns, executive director of FWD.US, applauded Biden's actions and urged him to focus on clemency for those still serving long sentences.

"What we are calling on is for the President in these final weeks of his administration, focus clemency on sentence commutations for people who are in prison," Towns explained. "However, of all of those people -- the pardons and the commutations on home confinement -- nobody actually walked home from prison, right? Nobody's prison term was reduced in any way."

Towns noted most recent commutations for people on house arrest basically removes the threat of reincarceration. She added they are cautiously optimistic Biden will focus on the issue, as a White House news release mentioned the possibility of more pardons and commutations.

Towns pointed out many long-term prison sentences disproportionately affect Black people, citing racial disparities in the harsher past sentences for cocaine possession. The 2010 Fair Sentencing Act reduced the gap but Towns added many remain imprisoned under outdated laws, underscoring the need for clemency.

"We believe that the federal prison population is far too large," Towns contended. "One in eight people who are in prison in the United States are incarcerated in the federal system. There are thousands of people -- nearly 200,000 people -- who have been in that system, who are serving extremely long sentences, and they need attention."

In a bipartisan poll conducted this fall by FWD.US, Towns said more than 80% of respondents agreed clemency should be used more frequently to address lengthy sentences.


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Oregon's constitution guarantees criminal defendants a state-funded lawyer for those who cannot afford one but a massive shortage of public defenders makes it unachievable.

According to the Oregon Justice Research Center, more than 90% of people charged with crimes in Oregon depend on a public defender. However, Oregon has less than a third of the public defense attorneys needed to handle all the cases.

Currently, more than 3,400 Oregonians charged with crimes have no lawyer.

Shannon Wilson, executive director of Public Defenders of Marion County, said public defenders are so overwhelmed with cases they can get burned out after a few years.

"There's not enough attorneys to address that work unless you want to adopt the belief that 300 clients per one attorney is enough to get legal representation," Wilson pointed out.

The Oregon Public Defense Commission estimates the state needs 500 more public defenders to meet its obligations. In 2023, lawmakers approved $96 million for attorney retention, recruitment and pay equity with prosecutors. But the commission said it is not enough.

The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission said recriminalizing low-level drug possession, enacted this year, will lead to nearly 2,300 additional convictions annually, disproportionately affecting people of color. Wilson noted if you can't afford a lawyer, you will likely get put on a waiting list and the wait can be 5 months or more.

Without a lawyer, some people end up spending needless time in jail and are less likely to have a fair trial. Most of Wilson's public defense clients face poverty, medical, or substance-abuse challenges and Wilson added stigma remains a significant barrier to fully funding Oregon's public defense system.

"This is our community, and I feel like we all have a responsibility to take care of everyone," Wilson stressed. "Especially the most vulnerable people that can't advocate for themselves. "

Despite the barriers, Wilson is optimistic Oregon legislators are heading in the right direction. The Oregon Public Defense Commission recommends doubling the state's two-year public defense budget from nearly $600 million to $1.3 billion by 2030.


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West Virginia schools' reliance on zero-tolerance policies are driving more kids into the juvenile justice system - with lifelong consequences, experts say.

New data from the Brookings Institution show Black and Hispanic female students are disproportionately referred to the juvenile justice system for minor offenses.

Elizabeth Shahan, executive director of the nonprofit West Virginia Prevention Solutions, said behavior like vaping in a classroom can land a child in a magistrate's court.

She said research supports using a peer or youth court model that emphasizes positive action, and added it's a huge investment for communities to offer alternatives.

"But when done well, you are judged by a court of your peers, much like a regular courtroom," said Shahan. "That court's job is to come up with a way for you to restore faith in and/or to remedy the situation."

According to the Brookings report, juvenile complaints lead to more school absences and lower test scores.

Black students are more than twice as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be arrested at school than white students.

Shahan said research has shown young brains aren't developed enough to fully understand the consequences of their actions.

So, the current punitive model only ensures they have no path forward to recognize their behavior as wrong, or be provided examples of good behavior.

"We now have a situation where we have a serious black mark on that youth's record," said Shahan. "We've basically doomed them to failure."

Shahan added that overuse of the juvenile justice system for minor or nonviolent offenses comes with a hefty price tag for the state.

"A lot of economic research has gone into if we spend a dollar on preventative services, preventative intervention before kids engage in risky behaviors," said Shahan, "then we save $24 in treatment costs, court costs, consequences costs."

She noted that criminal punishment also doesn't address mental health issues that often led to problematic behavior.

According to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the number of school-aged kids struggling with anxiety or depression nationwide rose by 1.5 million between 2016 and 2020.