I no longer accepting the things I cannot change… I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” – Angela Davis.
We have long accepted our criminal justice system as the status quo>negative stigma surrounding justice-impacted individuals causes society to, at times, overlook these conditions. This is an even more significant issue for justice-impacted women, whose prisons often lack the care, treatment, and services they need. In addition, these women face physical, emotional, and often sexual abuse while incarcerated.
In 2003, Angela Davis published her book “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Twenty years later, many states show no signs of transforming their correctional departments, and more prisons are being built yearly. Davis’s and my birth state of Alabama is finalizing plans to build a new $1 billion prison. This starkly contrasts with what Davis proposes in her book. She suggests replacing incarceration with “a continuum of alternatives,” including redesigned education and health systems and “a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.”
New Report on Incarceration Trends
Last week we issued parts one and two of our study on trends for females in the federal justice system from 2000 to 2021, covering arrests and sentencing trends. This week we released part three of this study, examining federal female incarceration trends. Graph 1 compares females arrested, sentenced, and incarcerated from 2000 to 2021.
Graph 1: Females Arrested, Sentenced, and Incarcerated 2000 – 2021
Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
Graph 2: Percentage of the Female Prison Population That is Hispanic
Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
In addition to race and ethnicity, we disaggregated the data by offense type, age, and sentence length. Drug and property offenses were the leading offenses for females incarcerated in federal prison over this period (See Chart 1), except Native American females, who were more likely to be incarcerated for drug and violent offenses. Furthermore, about one-third of the females incarcerated in federal prison are 30 to 39 years old (See Chart 2), and nearly half have sentence lengths from one to five years (See Chart 3).
Chart 1: Leading Offense Types for Incarcerated Females 2000 – 2021
Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
Chart 2 Average Percentage of Females Incarcerated by Age from 2000 – 2021
Calculations by the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
Chart 3: Average Percentage of Females Incarcerated by Sentence Length from 2000 – 2021
Calculations by the Women’s’ Institute for Science, Equity and Race. Data Source: Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
Please read the full report here for a thorough breakdown of the justice-impacted women inside our federal prison system.
