WILMINGTON—A New Hanover county legislator is pushing for better conditions for women in North Carolina's prisons.

Holly Grange says that incarcerated women are being deprived of "basic human dignities" such as access to their children and feminine hygiene products. The Republican legislator has drafted an amendment to House Bill 988 to address the issue.

A study by the Prison Policy Initiative says there were 219,000 women in U.S. prisons as of 2018. Grange notes that 80% of them are mothers, and she says that if possible, women should be incarcerated within 125 miles of their minor children so that they can have a better relationship.

Grange says that her amendment to the Prison Reform bill aims to give North Carolina’s incarcerated women access to free feminine hygiene products, protection from sexual assault, and proximity to their children.

“We want [these women] to become productive members of society,” Grange says, “we want them to be able to be parents to their children.”

Grange was “surprised at the opposition” to her proposal, which she says she thinks is because legislators don't want to be seen as "soft on crime." She says her challengers argued that her amendment aimed to add policy to a bill that required a study.