The Story of Beverly Henry

Beverly Henry is a formerly incarcerated women prisoner that has spent many years in the system. She recounts her time in the prison system and the things she had to see that occurred there. A memory that she shared with Huffington Post talks about what happened when “one woman had liver disease, with eyes “yellow as a warning sign” and two tampons stuck up her nose to stem the bleeding that poured from every orifice. Henry brought her to the prison’s clinic where, she said, the two were told to return to work. Within a week, the woman was dead” (Gottesdiener, 2011). This is a glimpse at the brutality and the loss of rights that prisoners have to go through in the prison system. This was not a small occurrence that the guards can overlook.The woman was clearly in terrible health and the fact that it was overlooked is sickening. If 

this had happened outside of jail, there would be an outrage and it probably wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Since these women are in prison, it was overlooked and no one batted an eye because to many, these people “deserved” this fate. Henry also talks about the unfair treatment by guards as “guards have sex and women are harassed by the guards,” said Henry. “Women get pregnant; babies are born: These things happen here and the guards are responsible” (Gottesdiener, 2011). This is extremely sickening as this is crossing a very big line. These guards are supposed to be the responsible ones that protect these women yet they are crossing the line. Henry describes this as a regular occurrence which makes me wonder why there aren’t any consequences in place. Pregnancy is not something that can be hidden and people must have noticed. The fact that people are aware of this issue and nothing is being done is very incorrect.

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