Women In Prison Project Fact Sheet

Correctional Association Of New York
Women In Prison Project
135 East 15th Street, New York, Ny 10003
Phone (212) 254-5700, Fax (212) 473-2807

United States

There are currently 130,043 women in U.S. prisons and jails.
• Since 1980, the number of women entering prisons in the United States had risen almost 400 percent, double the rate of men.

• The majority of women are in prison or jail for non-violent crimes such as prostitution, fraud or drug offenses.

• 22.3% of women in prison held no job prior to incarceration. Of those who had jobs, two-thirds reported never receiving more than $6.50 an hour.

• Over 70% of women with substance abuse problems have been victims of violence sometime in their lives.

• 54 percent of women in prison are women of color.

New York State

• 3,504 women were under the custody of New York State prisons on Janaury 1, 1999 - 5 % of New York State's total prison population.

• New York State has one of the largest female prison populations in the nation, exceeded only by Texas and California.

• 70 percent of the women committed to New York State prisons were convicted of non-violent/non-coercive crimes.

• Nearly 60% of all women in NYS prisons were incarcerated for drug offenses.

• On January 1, 1999, 54.6% of the women confined in New York State prisons were African American, 28.9% were Latina and 15.8% were white.

• 91% of women under custody for a drug offense in 1998 were women of color: 55.3% were African-American and 36.7% percent were Latina.

• Approximately 75 percent of the women under custody report that they are mothers and over 33 percent report having 3 or more children.

March 1999

Sources: New York State Department of Correctional Services, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, The Coalition for Women Prisoners, Women's Economic Agenda Project, JusticeWorks Community.

• Every year in the United States approximately 1500 women are killed by current or ex-husbands/boyfriends.¹

• Battering is the number one cause of injury to women in the United States. Attacks made by husbands on wives result in more injuries requiring medical treatment than rapes, muggings and auto accidents combined.²

• Nearly half of homicides of women for which a motive was known were committed by current or former husbands or boyfriends, or family members.³

• Women of all cultures, races, occupations, income levels and ages are battered.

• In 70 percent of domestic violence cases, a male batterer abuses not only his wife but his children as well.⁴

• Eight million children witness domestic violence each year.⁵

• 85 percent of women in prison were physically abused at some point in their past.⁶

• Battered women who are convicted of murder have a virtually non-existent rate of recidivism.⁷

• Battered women who are in prison in New York for assaulting or murdering their abuser are denied eligibility in the Temporary Release Program (work release), regardless of the circumstances surrounding their crime or of their performance record while in prison.

• Battered women who are in prison for assaulting or murdering their abuser are denied eligibility in the medical-parole program,regardless of the circumstances surrounding their crime or of their debilitated medical condition.

Sentences for Drug Offenders in New York State are Among the Most Punitive in the Country

• The harshest provisions of the Rockefeller Drug Laws require that a judge impose a prison term of no less than 15 years to life for anyone convicted of selling 2 ounces or possessing 4 ounces of a narcotic substance. The penalties apply without regard for the circumstances of the offense or the individual's character or background.

• When New York State enacted the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 1973, there were 400 women in state prisons; today there are over 3500 women in prison in New York.

• Of the 3,504 women in New York State prisons on December 31st, 1998, 1,971 or nearly 60 percent were there for drug offenses.¹

• Over 70% of women inmates under custody in New York State reported having a substance abuse problem prior to their arrest.²

• Over 90% of the inmates in NYS prisons for drug offenses are there because of mandatory sentencing laws.

• 91% of women under custody for a drug offense in 1998 were women of color: 55.3% were African-American and 36.7% percent were Latina.³

• Over 70% of women with substance abuse problems have been victims of violence sometime in their lives.⁴

• A 1997 study by the RAND Corporation's Drug Policy Research Center found that drug treatment reduces 15 times more drug-related crime than mandatory minimum sentences.

• It costs about $32,000 to keep an inmate in NYS prison for a year, and about $64,000 annually to confine a woman in a NYC jail on Rikers Island. In comparison, the cost of most drug free outpatient care runs $2,700-$4,500 per person per year; and the cost of residential drug treatment is $17,000-$21,000 per year.⁵

March 1999