The tampons were stacked and bound together with a rubber band. The incarcerated people at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit — a women’s prison in Central Texas — referred to these bundles as “dynamite sticks.”
Behind bars, these household items could be a liability. People on their periods might beg their peers for tampons or even take them. Correctional officers might write someone up for having more than the 12 tampons permitted per month, which was the practice until the state removed those limits in 2019. The punishments for those violations could range from losing phone or visitation privileges, to fines to solitary confinement.