Prisons - Prisoner Demographics: Women

Far fewer women are incarcerated than men. At the end of 2001, there were more than 1.4 million people serving sentences of more than one year in federal and state prisons. Of that number, 85,031 were women (called "sentenced inmates"; an additional 8,000 women had sentences of less than one year). More women are going to prison now; back in 1980, there were only 13,269 women in prison. The chart shows the distribution of female prisoners per 100,000 in their age group by age, race, and Hispanic origin.

African American women represent a disproportionate share of female prisoners. Their 43% share of the prison population is just about equal to white women's share. Hispanic women comprise 12%. The table shows the number of women incarcerated as of December

Number of Sentenced Female Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions: 2001

Age	Total Women	White Women	Black Women	Hispanic Women
Total	85,031	36,200	36,400	10,200
18-19	1,300	700	500	100
20-24	8,500	3,700	3,200	1,500
25-29	15,200	5,600	6,600	2,000
30-34	21,100	8,700	9,400	2,400
35-39	18,600	8,000	8,400	2,000
40-44	10,100	4,200	4,700	1,000
45-54	8,000	3,900	3,000	1,000
55+	1,800	1,300	500	100

31, 2001: 36,200 white, 36,400 black, 10,200 Hispanic, and 2,231 other women.³

In 1994 the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released a special report on women in state prisons (but not federal), the most recent report of its kind. It summarized characteristics of the female state prison population in 1991 (their number had grown 75% since 1986, to 39,917). Among the BJS findings: Women were far less likely than men to be imprisoned for a violent crime and far more likely to be serving time for a drug offense. Most of the women were over age 30 and at least high school graduates or holders of a GED. Most were unmarried, mothers of children under age 18, and had grown up in homes without both parents present. Before entering prison, 34% of the women had experienced physical or sexual abuse. With regard to criminal history, 28% of the women reported no prior imprisonment or probation compared to 19% of male prisoners.

Five years after the BJS report, Nightline aired a six-part television series entitled Crime and Punishment: Women in Prison. Ted Koppel and the show's producers spent a week in California's Valley State Prison, "home" to 3,600 women and said to be the largest women's prison in the world. They reported on what they called the unique problems of women in prison: "Most women are there for non-violent crimes. Most [80%] are there for drugs or drug-related crimes. Most [more than 85%] have children. Most [about 80%] were abused, physically and/or sexually before they got to prison. Most women have few family members or friends who visit them. Many have no visitors" (which might be due to the relatively small number and remote locations of women's correctional facilities). The producers of the Nightline series got feedback. Viewers wondered why anyone should care about the plight of female prisoners. The show's producer responded to the effect that in our "get tough on crime" climate, with more and more money being spent on prison construction and personnel, it might make sense to consider alternatives like the drug rehabilitation program offered at Valley State. Participants in the program had a recidivism rate of 20%, compared to 80% for nonparticipants.

In a report presented to the American Society of Criminology in 2001, the authors contended that "growing incarceration rates have resulted in nearly 1.5 million children (or 2 percent of the entire population under age 18) having a parent incarcerated." What will be the long-term effects on American society?

Next we look at the distribution of prisoners on death row by state.

Sources: Chart and table: "Prisoners in 2001," Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 195189, tables 15 and 16, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov. AOA, "Aging Internet Information Notes: Older Adults in Prisons," http://www.aoa.gov/naic/notes/olderadultsinprison.html. Crime and Punishment: Women in Prison, ABCNews.com, http://abcnews.go.com/onair/Nightline/nl991029.html.. James Austin et all, "The Use of Incarceration in the United States A Policy Paper Presented by the National Policy Committee to the American Society of Criminology," February 2001, http://www.asc41.com/policypaper1.html. Information retrieved November 15, 2002.