Women in prison

General statistics

Between 1995 and 2003, the total number of women in state or federal prisons grew by 48 percent, while number of men in prison grew by 29 percent. (Prisoners in 2003, Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Some 12.3 percent of all prisoners in local jails were women in 2004. Of those 44.4 percent were white, 38.6 percent black, and 15.2 percent Hispanic. The number of women in jails increased seven percent annually in the past 10 years, compared to 4.2 percent for men. (Prison and Jail Inmates at Mid-Year 2004, Bureau of Justice Statistics, April 2005)
Black women were more than eight times as likely as white women to be in prison in 1997. (Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs, Human Rights Watch, May 2000, p. 3)
In 1997, 58.8 percent of women in federal prison and 65.3 percent of all women in state prison had children under the age 18. (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, August 2000, p. 2)
An estimated 126,100 children had a mother in prison in 1999, up from 63,700 in 1991. (Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, August 2000, p. 2)
The average sentence for women in federal prison in the year ending September 30, 2001, was 33.1 months. (Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 2001, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003)
The likelihood of a woman born in 2001 spending time in prison in her lifetime is six times higher than for a woman born in 1974. (Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003)

Women and drug offenses

Approximately two out of three women (66.6 percent white, 64.8 percent black, 46.6 percent other) serving federal prison terms in 2002 were convicted of drug crimes. (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2002, p. 515)
Some 12.3 percent of the federal drug offenders sentenced in 2003 were women. (2003 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics, U.S. Sentencing Commission, Table 35)
The breakdown of female federal drug offenders sentenced in 2003 shows 16.4 percent incarcerated on heroin charges, 14.1 percent on methamphetamine, 11.5 percent on powder cocaine, 13.1 percent on marijuana, 8.7 percent on crack cocaine, and 14.4 percent on charges for other drug types. (2003 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics, U.S. Sentencing Commission, Table 35)
Some 30.4 percent of women in state prisons were serving time for drug offenses in 2001, down from 32.8 percent in 1991. (Prisoners in 2002, Bureau of Justice Statistics; Women in Prison, Issues and Challenges Confronting U.S. Correctional Systems, GAO/GGD-00-22)
The number of women incarcerated in state prisons for drug offenses rose by 888 percent from 1986 to 1996, in contrast to a rise of 129 percent for non-drug offenses. (Gender and Justice: Women, Drugs and Sentencing Policy, by Marc Mauer, Cathy Potler and Richard Wolfe, November 1999)

updated 3/06