Improving Prisoners’ Health in Egypt

Company: Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights | Role: Lead Researcher | Year: 2019

Project: In-Depth Interviews & Surveys | Project Team: Ayah Abo-Basha and Lobna Darwish

Question

In the context of post-2016 economic inflation in Egypt, and with record numbers of people behind bars in the country, the human rights community wanted to know how the political economic situation was impacting prisoners’ health and wellbeing. As lead Places of Detention researcher, I designed a mixed methods approach to pinpoint main thematic concerns. 

Methods

  • Led recruitment of  recently released  male & female prisoners from 10 different facilities to reach a representative sample 

  • Designed and distributed an online survey to  30 former prisoners to  determine their key concerns 

  • Moderated 15 in depth interviews with former prisoners to gain an extensive understanding of prisoners’ health-related habits, behaviors, and pain-points.

Analysis

Aggregated survey results and coded interview responses by themes to highlight key actionable areas for improving health conditions behind bars

Interview Quotes

“When I would visit my friends in prison after I got out, they would tell me the most important thing is the Always! And bring a whole lot of them. . . When the dollar value increased, everything else did with it. I remember an Always pack used to cost me 20 le in the prison, and it was about 10 le outside during that time. That’s a huge difference; they take double-fold the price. ”

— Former Prisoner, Qanater Women’s Prison

“Sometimes you become worried that your pads will run out before the next visit, or if you gave out most of them to prisoners who asked for them . . in [all these] situations, you find yourself waiting longer, and wearing the same pad for much longer, to avoid the hassle… which in the long run can lead to vaginal infections.” asadfsadl;skfjlasdfj;adfk;akdfja;dfsdaldf

— Former Prisoner, Damanhur Women’s Prison

Key Insights

Menstrual health stood out as a challenge among all surveyed and interviewed women prisoners. Due to sanitary pads being sold in the prison commissary at a 100% higher cost than outside of prison, socioeconomically disadvantaged prisoners could not access them. Those who could afford to have their families bring them sanitary products during prison visits, could not access pads when visits were interrupted. This led to many women wearing a damp pad for long periods (more than 6 hours) which placed women at risk for skin rashes, urinary tract infections, and vaginal infections.

Deliverables

I authored a campaign statement calling for prison authorities to provide cotton-based sanitary pads to female prisoners free of charge. The campaign statement can be accessed here. I also collaborated with a graphic designer to create visual social media posts.

Impact

The “Period in Prison” campaign generated the second highest online interaction numbers in the organization’s 20 year history and was profiled by several news outlets including BBC Arabic, MadaMasr, and other local sites. As a result, the research generated wide-scale discourse across the MENA region about both menstrual health and prisoners’ health conditions more broadly.