Women, Incarceration, and Gender-Based Violence: Why the Silence?

Millions of women and girls who are family members of incarcerated people in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean find themselves as collateral victims of the region’s mass incarceration policies.

With over 1.9 million people currently imprisoned in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is estimated that at least five family members per incarcerated person bear the impacts of incarceration. The impacts primarily affect women and girls who often experience multiple forms of gender-based violence (GBV) and rights abuses by degrading, inefficient, and under-resourced penitentiary and judicial systems.

A 2021 study of 188 Latin American women in eight countries looked at the impact that incarceration of family members had. Eighty-eight percent were relatives of an incarcerated man, while 12% were relatives of an incarcerated woman. The study found that:

• 85% of respondents reported sex-based harassment and other bad treatment by penitentiary personnel during prison visits.
• 32% of respondents wanted to file a formal complaint for sex-based violence or abuse during body searches but felt unsafe to do so.
• 82% of respondents reported their health worsened after incarceration of a family member.

In the words of one woman who visited a family member: “Even after going through a scanner, they make me lower my underwear and squat. They also make me lift my bra and breasts. They check my mouth, ears, hair, and the soles of my feet.”

While the prison crisis in the region receives media attention, little is done to address its toll on the lives of women family members. Women family members often take on responsibilities that should belong to the state, such as caring for their incarcerated relatives at the expense of their own health and safety. They provide food, medicine, clothing, and protection to their loved ones, a duty that should fall to the government.

The burden of care primarily affects women from low-income backgrounds, including elderly women, Afro-descendants, and women living in extreme poverty. These women also face mistreatment and various types of GBV. For example, women report psychological harassment during prison visits and economic violence in their community as many formerly incarcerated women and women with incarcerated relatives working as domestic workers are fired once employers know their status.

Symbolic violence is common among women affected by incarceration as they feel their status in society routinely devalued and experience high levels of stigma. Even sex-based violence, often inflicted by state officials during prison visits and while interacting with the police and members of the judiciary, is not uncommon.

The plight of women and girls affected by a family member’s incarceration remains ignored and invisible to both authorities and society at large. However, this is beginning to change through women’s organizing efforts. Since the early 2000s, women affected by incarceration started forming support groups and networks. Their activities included sharing best practices and resources to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence, sex-based harassment, and institutional violence. They also sought to gather information, encourage the formation of new groups, raise complaints, propose improvements to services and public policies, and advocate regionally with the Inter-American human rights system and the United Nations.

Formation of RIMUF

This meeting and organizing led to the formation of the International Network of Organizations of Women Family Members of the Incarcerated (RIMUF) in 2021, which unites organizations led by women in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain in defense of their rights and those of their incarcerated relatives. Though each context has its particularities, women face common challenges, regardless of language, country, or culture. Through RIMUF’s work, the GBV they face during prison and court visits, as well as in their communities, is brought to light and documented. Their practical barriers to accessing complaint mechanisms and support are also better understood.

Since October 2022, RIMUF member organizations have been promoting the “Principles and Good Practices for the Protection of the Rights of Women Family Members of the Incarcerated,” or the Bogotá Principles, throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The principles raise demands for equality and non-discrimination, access to health care, the right to protection of family bonds, access to justice, and more. It is crucial for prison systems, judicial authorities, social organizations, feminist movements, and society at large to address these demands.

As the international community mobilizes for the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action approaches, it is necessary to shine a light on invisible forms of GBV that affect women and girls every day. We must call on States to uphold their commitments to their citizens, advocate to bring the voices of diverse women’s movements—such as RIMUF’s—to new spaces, and provide funding to programs and advocacy initiatives led by women impacted by incarceration.

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Note: The views in this blog are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of InterAction.