Prisoner humiliated in gross sanitary pad order

A women’s prison has been forced to apologise after an inmate was told to hold a sanitary pad in place with her hands for 24 hours.

Finulla MacSporran says she has ‘never felt so worthless my whole life’ than she did in prison. Picture: Ian Currie

A women’s prison has been forced to apologise after an inmate had to hold a sanitary pad in place with her hands for 24 hours after being stripped naked.

The shocking incident, captured on CCTV cameras, has been investigated by the Victorian Ombudsman and is now the subject of a sexual discrimination claim.

Lawyers for Finulla MacSporran, 39, say she was deprived of her basic human rights in the May 2021 episode at Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost correctional centre.

The Herald Sun can reveal Ms MacSporran was sent to an isolation cell and ordered by a group of female prison guards to take off her clothing.

She was handed a sleeveless gown and a single sanitary pad – but no underwear – and told to hold the pad in place with her hands.

Unable to drink water or wash her hands because a bubble tap in the cell had low pressure, Ms MacSporran says she was denied repeated requests for paracetamol or water and was provided with two blankets covered in rat faeces and stains and just “a few squares of toilet paper”.

She was covered with menstrual blood, had a migraine and was vomiting from distress.

The Ombudsman has reviewed the CCTV footage and declared it to be consistent with the description provided.

The incident took place after Ms MacSporran reacted emotionally to being told her stint in prison had been extended by a month because of “an administrative error”.

Finulla MacSporran says she was denied repeated requests for paracetamol or water while in isolation. Picture: Ian Currie

Her lawyers say police guards broke the news “in a manner that aggravated Ms MacSporran’s pre-existing trauma and caused her significant distress”.

Ms MacSporran told the Herald Sun she had “never felt so worthless my whole life”.

“I had to stand face-to-face with six strangers and strip off completely,” she said.

“I had my period at the time, so had to hand them my underwear with my used pad. I was given a gown and a pad but no underwear and they told me to hold the pad between my legs. “I was then put in a box, in a cold and dirty room, in front of all of them.

“At the time, I could not process what was happening to me.

“By the time they let me out, 24 hours had gone by. My one pad had ended up on the floor. “All I could smell was blood on my hands and there was only a little bubbler in the room so I couldn’t wash my hands. They gave me back my dirty underwear with my bloody pad on it. Women know that smell and it is revolting.”

Ms MacSporran has filed an action in VCAT against the Secretary to the Department of Justice and Community Safety, which is being defended on technical grounds.

She has already received a personal apology from the prison’s general manager, Tracy Jones.

Ms MacSporran was jailed for a spate of offences. Picture: Ian Currie

Ms MacSporran’s lawyer Steven Amendola from Kingston Reid said: “The Andrews government has made a virtue of making period products available to women and girls in schools and elsewhere. But in prisons, where they control every minute of a prisoner’s day, they’re denying women this fundamental dignity and they’re hiding behind loopholes in their own laws to avoid taking proper responsibility for having made Finulla hold her pad with her hands for 24 hours and bleed all over herself. The government seems to think some women are still second class citizens with second class rights. Prison should be the punishment – having your period shouldn’t be.”

Ms MacSporran was a first-time prisoner who began her sentence in January last year.

She had been jailed for a spate of offending that occurred when she was separated from her children and fell into a cycle of drugs and homelessness.

Ms Jones said in an email in July last year: “I have reviewed the footage and several officer’s reports and I am concerned with some of the actions taken by my staff.

“I wanted to offer you a personal apology for any distress that may have been caused as a result of your treatment whilst in our care and your experience has highlighted where we can improve, to ensure this situation doesn’t occur again.

“I have already begun to implement some actions to ensure women’s dignity and safety is of utmost priority and maintained.

“I am embarrassed that some of our own policies were not followed in your case and I am extremely apologetic that this caused you added distress to an already traumatic time in your sentence.”