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Weaponized Compliance: Tear Gas in Women’s Prisons
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of ScheerPost
Posted: August 31st, 2025
https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/12/weaponized-compliance-tear...
In women’s prisons across Texas, tear gas—which includes agents such as pepper spray—has become the go-to response for minor infractions. Guards deploy it at close range in enclosed spaces, against policy, against humanity. They gas entire housing units to punish one person’s “noncompliance.” What they don’t tell you is how this chemical weapon—which is banned in warfare ... affects women’s bodies differently than men’s. Studies have found that women experience more serious reactions to tear gas exposure, particularly impacting reproductive health. In 2021, a study on the effects of tear gas on reproductive health found that nearly 900 people reported abnormal menstrual changes after exposure to tear gas. Other studies have linked tear gas exposure to miscarriage and fetal harm. Criminal justice advocates have decried the growing use of tear gas and pepper spray in prisons, saying that they should only be used as a last resort when there’s a serious threat to safety. But I’ve seen guards deploy it for cursing, for walking too slowly, for asking too many questions. It’s not about safety; it’s about control, about breaking our spirits through chemical warfare. The solution isn’t better ventilation or more careful deployment, though both would help. The solution is recognizing that the use of chemical weapons against the incarcerated—many of whom are trauma survivors—is inherently sadistic and unnecessary. Tear gas is even used in Texas juvenile facilities.
Note: This article was written by Kwaneta Harris, an incarcerated journalist from Detroit. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and non-lethal weapons.
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