Women in jail are fastest growing segment of America’s incarcerated population

By Melissa Jeltsen

In 1970, there were fewer than 8,000 women in American jails. By 2014, that number had skyrocketed to nearly 110,000 ― making women in jails the fastest growing segment of America’s incarcerated population.

That’s according to a comprehensive report the Vera Institute of Justice and the Safety and Justice Challenge released on Wednesday.

Despite the dramatic rise in numbers, very little research exists on who these women are, or why they are increasingly ending up behind bars.

“Because the research is pretty old and scarce, we had to cobble together a portrait,” said Elizabeth Swavola, the primary author of the report.

Women in jail are mostly black and Hispanic, overwhelmingly poor and low-income, and nearly 80 percent are mothers, she said. Many have high rates of trauma, serious mental and physical illness and histories of substance abuse.

The report was funded by the Safety and Justice Challenge, a national initiative supported by the MacArthur Foundation that aims to reduce mass incarceration by changing how America thinks about jails. Unlike prison, where those convicted of crimes are sent to serve sentences, most people in jail are awaiting trial and are legally presumed innocent.

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Thumbnail: Emiliano Bar | Unsplash