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2
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- The female prisoner population has more than doubled since 1990 from
44,065 to 94,336 in 2001
- Females accounted for 6.7% of all prisoners nationwide at mid-year 2001,
up from 4.1% in 1980 and 5.7% in 1990
- Men’s incarceration rate is still 15 times higher than for women. Men
are much more likely to be serving sentences for longer than a year. Out
of 100,000 citizens, 900 males and 59 females are serving sentences
longer than 1 year.
- In 2000, 22% of arrests were of women.
- Women account for approximately 14% of violent offenders -- an annual
average of 2.1 million violent female offenders
- As is the case with men, African-American and other minority women are
disproportionately represented among the prison population
- An estimated 28% of violent female offenders are juveniles
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3
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- Because there are fewer women in prison, there are fewer women’s
prisons. Consequently, women are more likely to be farther away from
their homes.
- Only about half the states in the U.S. had separate prison facilities
for women in the mid-1970’s. In 1995, the U.S operates 104 female
correctional institutions, an increase of 46.5% since 1990. Despite the
increase, women are often incarcerated in facilities far from their
homes
- Over 60% of children live over 100 miles from their mother’s prison
- Distance from the prison accounted for over 43% of the reasons cited by
mothers for infrequent or absent visitation with their children
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- Women’s imprisonment for drug offenses has substantially increased. One
in three women are incarcerated on a drug offense
- Over 70% of all women in state prisons are serving sentences for
non-violent offenses (drug/property). Approximately 65% of women and 77%
of men confined to state prisons had a history of prior convictions.
- Two-thirds of women imprisoned for violent offenses had targeted someone
they knew and were twice as likely as their male counterparts to have
targeted someone close to them
- About one-half of women offenders in state prisons had used alcohol,
drugs, or both at the time of offense
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5
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- About 70% of women in local jails, 65% of women in state prisons, and
59% of women in federal prisons have young children
- About 64% of women resided with their children prior to incarceration
compared to 44% of men
- In 1997, over two-thirds of women in prison had at least one child under
the age of 18 years
- In 1997, 5% of women entered prison pregnant
- Women under supervision by justice system agencies are mothers of an
estimated 1.3 million minor children
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- About one in five female inmates received medication for psychological
or emotional problems since admission to prison
- About 3.5% of women prisoners were diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1997,
compared to 2.2% of men
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Notes
