Women In Prison -- you've seen the Movie, here's the Reality. It sux. It's scarier than the Movie.

after cowboy movies and gangster movies and Outer Space movies and Horror movies, one of Hollywood's favorite cliches is Women In Prison movies.

The Women Prisoners are mean and vicious to each other. They're forced to wear ugly grey uniforms, they can't use any makeup, they can't get their hair or their nails done, they have big fights where they roll around on the floor until the Big Evil Woman Warden breaks it up and then gives the innocent heroine a terrible cruel punishment -- she takes away the heroine's snapshot of her beloved smiling cherub little son Tommy, which was the only thing keeping her sane in her nightmare of Women's Prison. She's innocent, she was framed, it was all a misunderstanding. But no one believes her. It's hopeless. She'll never see Tommy again. Cliche cliche yadda yadda.

Starting in the Silent Movie era, Hollywood has made a Women In Prison movie reliably every year or two. The audience loves it. Did I mention the big nasty chick fight where they're rolling around on the floor until the Evil Woman Warden breaks it up?

The women in the audience love it because the women in the audience know: This could never happen to me. Hahaha. This will never happen to me. No way would I ever end up in prison. That's just crazy. I've never known a woman who went to prison. I've never heard of any woman who went to prison. So this is all Fiction and Make-Believe. Hahahaha. Hmmm, I should have asked for butter on the popcorn.

Okay, movie's over, lights are coming up, back to Reality. If these stats are a year or two stale, go back to the latest Justice Department stats for yearend 2004.

Everything has gotten worse.

filched from Drug War Facts but maybe they're lying. I mean -- who ever heard of a woman going to prison? Hahaha.

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Women

1. The most serious offense for 72% of women in federal prisons and 30.4% of women in state prisons is violation of drug laws.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 6, Table 15; Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 10, Table 15.

2. The number of women incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA is approximately 10 times more than the number of women incarcerated in Western European countries, even though Western Europe's combined female population is about the same size as that of the USA.

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International, March 1999), p. 15.

3. "During 2002 the number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 4.9%, compared to a 0.2% drop in 2001 (table 5). The number of men in prison rose 2.4%, up from 1.2% the previous year. At yearend 2002 there were 97,491 women and 1,343,164 men in State or Federal prisons."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 4, Table 5.

4. "From 1995 to 2002 the average annual rate of growth of the female inmate population was 5.2%, higher than the average 3.5% increase in the male inmate population. Since 1995 the total number of male prisoners has grown 27%; the number of female prisoners 42%. By yearend 2002 women accounted for 6.8% of all prisoners, up from 6.1% in 1995."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 4.

5. "Relative to their number in the U.S. resident population, men were about 15 times more likely than women to be in a State or Federal prison. At yearend 2002 there were 60 sentenced female inmates per 100,000 women, compared to 906 sentenced male inmates per 100,000 men."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 4.

6. Women are the fastest growing and least violent segment of prison and jail populations. 85.1% of female jail inmates are behind bars for nonviolent offenses.

Source: John Irwin, Ph. D., Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg, America's One Million Nonviolent Prisoners (Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, March 1999), pgs. 6-7.

7. From 1986 (the year mandatory sentencing was enacted) to 1996, the number of women sentenced to state prison for drug crimes increased ten fold (from around 2,370 to 23,700) and has been the main element in the overall increase in the imprisonment of women.

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International, March 1999), p. 26.

8. From 1985 to 1996, female drug arrests increased by 95%, while male drug arrests increased by 55.1%.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports 1985 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1986), p. 181, Table 37; Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1997 Uniform Crime Report (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1998), p. 231, Table 42.

9. In 1998, there were an estimated 3,170,520 arrests of women, of which 272,073 were for drug offenses -- 18% of the total drug arrests in that year.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 5, Table 10.

10. Between 1990 and 1996, the number of women convicted of drug felonies increased by 37% (from 43,000 in 1990 to 59,536 in 1996). The number of convictions for simple possession increased 41% over that period, from 18,438 in 1990 to 26,022 in 1996.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 5, Table 11.

11. In 1997 a US Justice Department investigation of women's prisons in Arizona concluded that the authorities failed to protect women from sexual misconduct by correctional officers and other staff. The misconduct included rape, sexual relationships, sexual touching and fondling, and "without good reason, frequent, prolonged, close-up and prurient viewing during dressing, showing and use of toilet facilities." (CIV97-476, US District of Arizona).

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International (March 1999), p. 39.

12. Retaliation for reports of abuse impedes women's access to protection of their human rights. One woman who won a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Prisons for sexual abuse reported that she was beaten, raped and sodomized by three men who in the course of the attack told her that they were attacking her in retaliation for providing a statement to investigators.

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International, March 1999), p. 59.

13. Sick and pregnant women are routinely shackled during hospitalization and childbirth if they are inmates of prisons or jails in the USA.

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International, March 1999), p. 63.

14. "Female incarceration rates, though substantially lower than male incarceration rates at every age, reveal similar racial and ethnic disparities. Black females (with an incarceration rate of 191 per 100,000) were more than twice as likely as Hispanic females (80 per 100,000) and 5 times more likely than white females (35 per 100,000) to be in prison on December 31, 2002. These differences among white, black, and Hispanic females were consistent across all age groups."

Source: Harrison, Paige M. & Allen J. Beck, PhD, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, July 2003), p. 9, Table 14.

15. Approximately 516,200 women on probation (72% of the total), 44,700 women in local jails (70% of the total), 49,200 women in State prisons (65% of the total), and 5,400 women in Federal prisons (59% of the total) have minor children.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 7, Table 17.

16. "Of the Nation's 72.3 million minor children in 1999, 2.1% had a parent in State or Federal prison. Black children (7.0%) were nearly 9 times more likely to have a parent in prison than white children (0.8%). Hispanic children (2.6%) were 3 times as likely as white children to have an inmate parent."

Source: Mumola, Christopher J., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, August 2000), p. 2.

17. In 1997 an estimated 2.8% of all children under age 18 had at least one parent in a local jail or a State or Federal prison. About 1 in 359 children have an incarcerated mother -- for a total of 194,504 children with their mothers behind bars.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), pp. 7-8, Tables 17 and 18.

18. Forty-four percent of women under correctional authority, including 57% of the women in State prisons, reported that they were physically or sexually abused at some point in their lives. Sixty-nine percent of women reporting an assault said that it had occurred before age 18.

Source: Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Snell, Tracy L., Bureau of Justice Statistics, Women Offenders (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, December 1999), p. 8, Table 20.

19. Many women in prisons and jails in the USA are victims of sexual abuse by staff, including male staff touching inmates' breasts and genitals when conducting searches; male staff watching inmates while they are naked; and rape.

Source: Amnesty International, "Not Part of My Sentence: Violations of the Human Rights of Women in Custody" (Washington, DC: Amnesty International, March 1999), p. 38.

20. As of June 1997, two-thirds of the AIDS cases in Hispanic women were directly linked to injecting drug use: 42.8% of Hispanic women contracted AIDS by injecting drugs, and an additional 23.2% contracted the disease through sexual intercourse with male injecting drug users.

Source: National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations, HIV/AIDS: The Impact on Minorities (Washington, DC: National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations, 1998), Figure 6, pg. 16.

21. African American women accounted for over 50 percent of all injection-related AIDS cases among women in 1997, although they made up only 12 percent of the female population. Similarly, Latina women accounted for almost 25 percent of all injection-related AIDS cases among women in 1997, although they made up only 10 percent of the female population.

Source: Dawn Day, Ph.D., Health Emergency 1999: The Spread of Drug-Related AIDS and other Deadly Diseases Among African Americans and Latinos (The Dogwood Center, 1998), p. i.

22. "Of the 13,573 treatment facilities that responded to the 2000 N-SSATS (National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services), 60 percent reported that they provided at least one of the special programs or services for women. Almost one third of the facilities (33 percent) provided one program or service, 17 percent of the facilities provided two programs or services, 8 percent of the facilities provided three, and 3 percent provided four programs or services (data not shown). Of the facilities providing programs or services for women, 63 percent reported providing programs for women only, 56 percent reported services addressing domestic violence, 34 percent provided programs for pregnant or postpartum women, and 16 percent offered on-site child care services."

Source: "Facilities Offering Special Programs or Services for Women," The Dasis Report (Washington, DC: Dept. of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies, Oct. 11, 2002), pp. 1-2.

23. "Facilities offering special programs or services for women were more likely to provide a variety of treatment services than facilities that did not offer such programs or services (Figure 1). These included transitional employment (with the largest difference, 42 percent vs. 25 percent), relapse prevention (83 percent vs. 67 percent), transportation assistance (42 percent vs. 26 percent), family counseling (83 percent vs. 69 percent), and pharmacotherapies (46 percent vs. 36 percent). Some 97 percent of facilities with women's programs or services offered individual therapy compared with 91 percent of facilities without special women's programs or services. In addition, 91 percent of facilities with women's programs or services offered group therapy compared with 84 percent of the other facilities."

Source: "Facilities Offering Special Programs or Services for Women," The Dasis Report (Washington, DC: Dept. of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Studies, Oct. 11, 2002), p. 2.