Sonny Clark
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
The tragedy of imprisoned women in America.
Women Behind Bars
NOV. 30, 2015
* In 1980 there were just over 15,000 women in state prisons. By 2010 there were nearly 113,000. When jail inmates are added in, there are about 206,000 women currently serving time — nearly one-third of all female prisoners in the world.
* Black women are locked up at almost three times the rate of white women.
* Thailand is the only country with a higher incarceration rate for women than the United States over all. But individual states are far worse. West Virginia has the highest rate in the world, imprisoning 273 of every 100,000 women, with nearly two dozen other states not far behind.
* One 1996 study of California prisoners found that 92 percent of women in prison had been abused, and often that abuse continues inside prison walls by male guards.
* Pregnant women face their own gantlet of humiliation behind bars. In 28 states, women may be shackled during labor and delivery, and while caring for their newborns — a “barbaric” practice that continues despite the lack of any evidence that they pose a threat. Most of the newborns are immediately separated from their mothers after birth.
* Two-thirds of women entering prison have children.
* The cost of imprisonment for nonviolent crimes has severely burdened state and federal budgets, with little demonstrated benefit to public safety. As the nation struggles with how to shrink its overcrowded prisons and jails, low-level and nonviolent offenders are often among the first considered for release.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/o...side-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0
Women Behind Bars
NOV. 30, 2015
* In 1980 there were just over 15,000 women in state prisons. By 2010 there were nearly 113,000. When jail inmates are added in, there are about 206,000 women currently serving time — nearly one-third of all female prisoners in the world.
* Black women are locked up at almost three times the rate of white women.
* Thailand is the only country with a higher incarceration rate for women than the United States over all. But individual states are far worse. West Virginia has the highest rate in the world, imprisoning 273 of every 100,000 women, with nearly two dozen other states not far behind.
* One 1996 study of California prisoners found that 92 percent of women in prison had been abused, and often that abuse continues inside prison walls by male guards.
* Pregnant women face their own gantlet of humiliation behind bars. In 28 states, women may be shackled during labor and delivery, and while caring for their newborns — a “barbaric” practice that continues despite the lack of any evidence that they pose a threat. Most of the newborns are immediately separated from their mothers after birth.
* Two-thirds of women entering prison have children.
* The cost of imprisonment for nonviolent crimes has severely burdened state and federal budgets, with little demonstrated benefit to public safety. As the nation struggles with how to shrink its overcrowded prisons and jails, low-level and nonviolent offenders are often among the first considered for release.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/o...side-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0
