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Women in Prison

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Mon Oct 24, 2005 at 11:17:12 AM EST
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by TChris

Are judges more likely than they once were to send women to prison?

Women made up 7 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons last year and accounted for nearly one in four arrests, the government reported Sunday. ... In 1995, women made up 6.1 percent of inmates in those facilities.

Overall, the population of our prison nation grew 1.9 percent in 2004, with 2,267,787 individuals behind bars.

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    Women in Prison | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    I wonder how many of them are incarcerated under mandatory minimums for drug crimes.

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#2)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    It's definitely the drug war. Acccording to Justice Dept. statistics just released, 31.5% of all women in state prison were serving time for drugs -- 25,100 out of 79,800 women total. The problem with the mandatory sentencing also sets up some horrendous situations, where women in (sometimes abusive) relationships with a drug dealer end up getting charged, but, knowing nothing about the operation can't give up anyone else to the prosecutors. The huband/boyfriend flips on someone and gets a short sentence, but the girlfriend/wife who only answered the phone gets the long mandatory one.

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#3)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    Interesting statistic, TChris. 1 in 4 arrests are women yet only 1 in 14 inmates are women. Said another way, women are 3-4 times less likely to be incarcerated for their crimes as men. Where's the outrage?

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#4)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    Sarcastic unnamed: "Said another way, women are 3-4 times less likely to be incarcerated for their crimes as men." Um, no. There are other factors involved, including length of sentence, etc. The fact is that there has been significant growth in the incarceration of women.

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#5)
    by Patrick on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    Ahh, but those "other factors" only matter depending on the type of spin you're trying to put on it. My 2 cents worth anyway. What SUO said still looks accurate.

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#6)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:19 PM EST
    No. It's not spin, it's basic statistics. Let's say (to oversimplify) that you have 10 men a year sentenced to 70 years for murder, and let's say you have 10 women a year sentenced to 10 years for drug charges. At the end of 70 years, you'd have 700 men in prison and only 100 women despite the exact same number incarcerated being incarcerated. So what SUO said is only accurate if you assume that women and men are in for the same offences and the same length of sentence.

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#7)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:20 PM EST
    Yes, my comment was mostly in fun in response to the utter lameness of the thread. There is so little factual info in the linked article that no intellegent discussion can be had. And TChris seems to be implying that judges are sending a higher percentage of arrested women to prison than before, but he's so non-specific who the hell knows what he's trying to say?

    Re: Women in Prison (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:20 PM EST
    Yeah, SUO, the little wire story quoted by TChris doesn't allow for much speculation or discussion, but that has more to do with the short "bulletin" nature of the story. Actually, the story is a short summarization of the annual U.S. Department of Justice incarceration stats, released for the monday am news cycle. The full report is available here and is more informative than the summary. And yes, the report summary with the most noteworthy to the official staticians indicates that the number of women in prison for drug crimes is disturbing and growing:
    . Women were 7.0% of all inmates, up from 6.1% in 1995. . About half of male State prison inmates were serving time for a violent crime, compared to a third of female inmates. Females were more likely to have a drug offense (31.5%) compared to males (20.7%).
    Women in Prison | 8 comments (8 topical)