Feminist Peace Network

The Sentencing Project has a chilling new report out entitled, “Women in the Criminal Justice System: Involvement in Crime,” which documents the horrendous impact that drug sentencing laws have on women, the devastating effect that incarceration has on mothers who are incarcerated and their children, the disproportionate incarceration of women of color and much more. Among the statistics presented (the bolding is mine) in the report:

“More than one million women are currently under the supervision of the criminal justice system in the U.S.Expanding at 4.6% annually between 1995 and 2005, women now account for 7% of thepopulation in state and federal prisons.The number of women in prison has increased at nearly double the rate of men since 1985, 404% vs. 209%.

Black women represent 30 percent of all females incarcerated under state or federal jurisdiction, and Hispanic women 16 percent. In 2005, black women were more than three times as likely as white women to be incarcerated in prison or jail, and Hispanic women 69% more likely.The likelihood that children will have parents who are incarcerated is disproportionately linked to race. In 1999, one of every 14 black children had a parent in prison, compared with one in every 125 white children. Black children are almost 9 times more likely than white children to have a parent in prison and Hispanic children are 3 times more likely.

More than half (57%) of women incarcerated under state jurisdiction reported that they had experienced either sexual or physical abuse before their admission to prison.

Women incarcerated in state prisons were less likely than men to have been convicted of a violent offense (35% vs. 53%).

Women incarcerated in state prisons were more likely than men to have been convicted of a property or drug crime (59% vs. 40%).

One in three female offenders in state prisons is incarcerated for a violent offense, but female violent offenders are twice as likely as men to have victimized someone they knew.
From 1986 to 1996, despite the fact that the rate at which women used drugs actually declined substantially, the number of women incarcerated in state facilities for drug offenses increased by 888%, compared to a rise of 129% for non-drug offenses. Overall, drug offenses constituted half (49%) of the increased number of women in state prisons between 1986 and 1996.

Over 1.5 million children have a parent in prison,1 more than 8.3 million children have a parent under correctional supervision, and more than one in five of these children is under five years old. Among female state prisoners, two-thirds are mothers of a minor child. For many women incarceration may last for a significant part of their child’s formative years, and in some cases lead to a loss of parental rights.

10% of women have children living in a foster home or agency; women in prison are five times more likely than men to report having children removed from their immediate families and placed in a foster home or other agency. A majority of parents in state and federal prisons are held over 100 miles from  their prior residence; in federal prisons 43% of parents are held over 500 miles away from their last home. Over half of female prisoners have never had a visit from their children.One in three mothers has never spoken with her children by phone while incarcerated.States are authorized to initiate termination of parental rights when a child has been living under foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. More than 60% of mothers in prison are expected to serve more than 24 months on their current sentence.”

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities