Louisiana prisoners will no longer have to pay for tampons

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a new law this week that will give women in prison access to as many tampons and sanitary napkins as they need free of charge. Women will also get as much moisturizing soap and toothpaste as needed under the new law, which goes into effect Aug. 1.

Women in prison are currently given a supply of sanitary products for free, but sometimes have to pay for extra tampons or sanitary napkins if they run out of that supply. This new law would prohibit prisons from charging for those products.

The new law also places restrictions on male correctional officers that are overseeing women inmates. Male prison guards won't be allowed to do pat-downs and cavity searches of female prisoners unless there is an immediate risk and a female correctional officer is not available.

Male correctional officers also won't be able to enter the areas of a prison where women prisoners might be in a state of undress without announcing themselves ahead of time, unless there was an emergency and a woman correctional officer can't handle the situation.

If male correctional officers have to do a body search of a woman or enter an area where women were partially undressed, the officers will have to write up the incident and provide an explanation for why they had to act without advance notice. That report would be due within three days after the incident took place.

Julia O'Donoghue is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jsodonoghue. Please consider following us on Facebook at NOLA.com.