Women incarcerated in Colorado don’t have adequate access to feminine hygiene products, and that’s an unnecessary affront to dignity, said Democratic state Reps. Leslie Herod and Faith Winter on Thursday. They proposed an amendment to the state’s $26.8 billion budget that would move $40,000 within the Department of Correction to solve the problem.

The House passed the amendment.

Herod noted that inmates make pennies per hour at their corrections jobs and that a box of generic tampons costs $7.49 at the prison canteens.

“Tampons are a basic necessity for health and hygiene,” Herod said, adding that 15 states supply tampons to prisoners. “Let’s join those states,” she said.

House members are debating a list of 93 amendments to the budget “long bill.”

Of 10 amendments so far proposed, the Democratic majority has passed six, all proposed by Democrats.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of the budget last week. Democrats and Republicans in a legislative joint committee will have to wrestle the two versions into a final bipartisan product.

– john@coloradostatesman.com