Abuse in Prisons

It was appalling to read “Widespread Abuse of Female Inmates Cited” (March 5), which reported sexual abuse, rape and shoddy or denied medical treatment for women throughout American prisons. Incidents such as shackling mothers in labor and denying a mammogram for a woman with breast lumps for close to 10 years, if true, are shameful and barbaric.

The real irony was that a few pages later we read that our country’s first lady received a standing ovation at a U.N. conference during which she stated that “it is no longer acceptable to say that the abuse and mistreatment of women is cultural. It should be called what it is--criminal.” Afghanistan, in particular, was criticized.

I say that although “it takes a village to raise a child,” it doesn’t stop there. Our “village” needs to also be more concerned with what is happening in its own system of criminal injustice.

MAUREEN E. FORD

Rancho Palos Verdes