Mass incarceration of Women in the US

Incarceration rates in The United States have grown drastically and are rapidly increasing. About 5% of the population will, on average, serve a sentence of about 60 months or more in prison . This rise in incarceration rates has disproportionally affected women . From 1988 to 2008, the imprisonment rate for women has increased by 600%, while for men it has increased by 300% . Currently about 1 million women pass through prisons every year of about 3.2 million arrests. Out of these sentences, about 67% were drug convictions. Most of these women are in their early to mid-thirties. They are usually from fragmented families, and have had a family member of their own who has been imprisoned. Many have also been survivors of physical or sexual abuse as adults or children. Many are undereducated. Jailed women have a higher rate of HIV than those that are from similar backgrounds but not in jail. Most suffer from substance abuse problems and are unmarried mothers of minor children. These increased incarceration rates are especially linked to the increase in drug usage and involvement for women over the past two decades. The “war on drugs”, a large problem currently facing The United States, has had the biggest impact on arrests, especially arrests of women. Women are currently more likely than men to serve time for an offense that is drug related, even though women are less likely than men to have a central in drug trade. This should call for a more appropriate response to women criminals and an analysis of the structural cause of the crime, as opposed to solely punitive responses similar to those of violent criminals. The issue of women’s imprisonment is cyclic. Many incarcerated women have been victimized or have seen violence as a child. Many have grown up in homes where one or more parent was in prison during their adolescence. Growing up with a parent, especially a mother, in prison has extremely detrimental effects on children. Women play a large role in parenting and support. Increased incarceration of women causes a ripple affect that impacts children, families and neighborhoods. While approximately 75% of all incarcerated women are mothers, only 25% of these mothers can rely on the child’s father to provide care during their sentence. With jobs continuing to disappear, inadequate education for young people, and an increase in homelessness, urban crime rates continue to increase. In 2007, over 1.5 million children had a parent in prison, 8.3 children had a parent in correctional supervision and out of these children, and one fifth were under the age of five. While their parents are incarcerated, about 28% of children live with their fathers. About 62% of these children live with a grandparent, relative or friend of the mother. About 10% live in foster care or in social service institutions, of these institutions only about 12% have facilities and services specifically for the needs of children with incarcerated parents. The majority of parents are held in federal prisons over 100 miles from their residences and 43% of women are held over 500 miles from their homes. Over half of female prisoners have never had a visit from their children and one in three mothers has never spoken with her children during her sentence. To reduce long-term foster care, The Adoption and Safe Families Act was passed in 1997, to allow for quick termination of parental rights. All 50 states are allowed to terminate parental rights if a child has been living in foster care for at least 15 months. This being said, more than 60% of mothers are expected to have a sentence of over 24 months. Apart from the effect on children, women often do not get the attention they need during their sentence, as prisons do not focus on female issues. Most female prisoners suffer from mental illness, substance abuse and HIV. While many male correctional facilities offer programs to help men re-integrate into society, women often suffer during their sentences and do not receive proper aid, allowing men, not women, to re-integrate into society after their sentence. 60% of women in state prisons have a substance abuse problem and during incarceration, only 1 in 5 of these women receive treatment for substance abuse. Similarly, only 1 in 8 women in federal prisons receive treatment for substance abuse. In terms of mental health, nearly 1 in 4 women in prison are diagnosed with mental illness and about 12% of women in prisons have severe psychiatric disorders caused specifically by domestic violence. Fewer than 25% of these women receive adequate mental health aid. Education is another leading issue for imprisoned women. 44% of women in state prisons have not graduated from high school. Only 12% of imprisoned women have attended university-level education in some degree. Only one in five incarcerated women take high school or university level classes, mainly because only half of national women’s correctional facilities offer educational programs.
Figure 1

Figure 1 clearly illustrates the number of women who are not receiving sufficient care during their time in prison in 2004. The overall lack of resources provided to women and the fact that many imprisoned women are mothers, make the problem a cyclic one. Children need guidance and parenting in order to thrive. Similarly, imprisoned women need their time in prison to be useful to allow them to successfully reintegrate into society. If both are lacking, resources, like time and money, that seem to be working in keeping prisoners detained in the short-term, are actually continuously going to waste in the long run. The US would spend far less money and have much lower rates of incarceration if more time was dedicated to ensuring that time in prison was spent on helping prisoners re-integrate into society, as opposed to causing familial separation and societal isolation (ie difficulty finding employment, housing etc.).
Figure 2 Figure two illustrates the cyclic nature of substance abuse in terms of incarceration. A child sees his parent(s) incarcerated due to drug use. The emotional response to this is sadness and grief. The behavior incorporated with this sadness is withdrawal. His coping mechanism is substance abuse. He is then himself incarcerated due to drug possession.
Figure 3 Figure 3 illustrates the effect of having an incarcerated parent on a child. The lack of a parent can have very negative effects on a child and losing a mother due to incarceration often leads to the child being taken away from his father as well. The solution to this cycle is obviously not an easy one, but one that uses resources in a more productive fashion. First, incarcerated women should have better access to more specific training and aid, so that their time in prison is more effective and helps them successfully re-integrate into society. Second, these women should be aided once they have finished their sentence in order to contribute to society after their conviction. Third, the children of these incarcerated women should have more and better contact with their parents in order to maintain familial ties. They should also receive proper care that enforces education thus breaking the cycle that forms with the incarceration of parents. In New York, the cost of the average female sentence is $60,000 per inmate. If provisions to the system of incarceration for women are made, the number of women incarcerated would decrease and thus the expenditure on women would decrease. Changes can be made on three levels, by the inmates themselves, by improvement of policy and by those providing services to the women. Incarcerated women consistently do not receive the support they need during their sentence. Due to this, the time most women serve will not be put to good use, making them more likely to re-enter the system. The first main area of concern should be screening, this would allow for women in need to be properly assisted during their time. This would be screening for HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, mental health illnesses and physical illness. This could also account for screening of children and domestic violence. The second area that would then need to be addressed is improved treatment after these screenings. Although the amount of treatment has increased drastically since a survey done in 1998, the type of treatment is based on models for men, which are not most always suitable for women. Third, there should be more resources available to women to help them improve their lifestyles once they are released. These include better education, health education and mentoring and counseling programs. Inmates should be provided with mentors and have a good relationship with a physician during their sentence. These relationships should be continued for a small period of time after release, to ensure good health and reformation after imprisonment, preventing relapse or re-entry into the system. Programs that would aid in societal re-integration for these women include not only resources available during prison, but also discharge planning, client referrals, intervention counseling, technical training, child care for women who do obtain employment after release and a reduction of policy obstacles for women who are actively seeking work after release. There could also be better housing available and financial support for women seeking education after release. These types of programs would allow for women to start a new after their sentence and contribute to society, as opposed to throwing them back into society without adequate resources, which could lead to re-incarceration, thus wasting national resources. Lastly, there should be programs for children while mothers are incarcerated. There should be support groups and improvements in contact between women and their children during the mother’s sentence. Improved contact and communication, combined with programs for women when they are in prison and once released, will allow for children to lead more normal lives after their mothers are released. It would also aid in breaking the cycle shown in Figure 2. While their mothers are serving time, these children should be monitored in terms of education and under supervision to prevent criminal activity. They should also be supported mentally and physically to prevent illness from occurring. These measures would decrease expenditure on social services and allow for fewer broken families. Naturally there are many limitations to this plan - the main issue being funding. With so many economic problems in The United States, there are not many people who would be that interested in incarceration, especially the incarceration of women. Which also brings rise to the issue of raising awareness. While there are many NGOs looking into this issue, there are not many people who are acting as advocates for the problem. With many social issues in the world today, the issue of women’s incarceration does not appear to be extremely pressing. Another major cause of women’s incarceration, and the rise of mass incarceration, is the “war on drugs” that currently faces America. Even if these ameliorating measures were successful, it would not stop the root of the problem, which is women in the drug trade. It could lessen the amount of women that are involved, but it does not stop the fact that women are becoming increasingly more prevalent in international drug trafficking. Some children are also often in a better situation if they are put under foster care. Naturally, incarcerated mothers are criminals. Not all criminals are looking for reform. Not all criminals are mentally capable of raising children. It is a sad truth that some children should not be raised by incarcerated mothers and would have a potentially brighter future if put in someone else’s care. The situation for imprisoned women does need improvement. These measures would only work over a long period of time, as part of the solution is generational. Women would need to ensure that they are taking advantage of all resources around them, and would want to change their way of living in order for the solution to work. Providers would need to ensure that they are working to the best of their ability. Children would need to stay in school and avoid illicit actions. The government would need to ease policy and increase expenditure on the prison system for women to feel the benefits. It would be a fairly idealistic society; however, even a slight increase in resources and more interest from all parties would allow for the situation to improve and hopefully work towards ending the problem facing women in the American criminal justice system.