Women punished twice over in Colombia's prisons

"Loss of freedom should not mean loss of fundamental rights," Diana Sánchez, a lawyer with the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (CSPP), told IPS. "But in Colombia prisoners are punished twice over: with a prison sentence, and with restrictions on their other rights." Women prisoners in Colombia face poor medical care and hygiene conditions, overcrowding, harassment by male guards, mistreatment and abuses at the hands of staff, and lack of privacy during conjugal visits, according to complaints filed with state oversight agencies. In addition, they are often transferred to prisons far from their homes and families. The same kinds of abuses are faced by women inmates whether they are common prisoners or political prisoners in this civil war-torn country, human rights organizations report. To address the situation, the CSPP and other local human rights groups are organizing a campaign for the Rights and Dignity of Women Prisoners in Colombia, to be launched in June. The organisers of the campaign argue that "being deprived of freedom does not mean the same thing for men and women, because…women carry the weight of being judged by a moralistic society that reproaches them for violating the idea of the submissive woman who is the caretaker of order, values and the family."