In media coverage of the Obama administration’s new clemency initiative that could allow more nonviolent drug offenders to win early release, much of the focus has been on high incarceration rates among black men. But as this Sentencing Project report reminds us, the number of women in prison has increased at a rate 50 percent higher than men since 1980. And more than a quarter of female inmates are in prison for drug crimes.
Meanwhile, this 2006 report from the ACLU, NYU’s Brennan Center, and the nonprofit Break the Chains explores how the sentencing guidelines being revamped by the DOJ have resulted in especially long sentences for women on drug-related conspiracy charges — decimating many families in the process. From 1980-2010, the number of women in U.S. prisons increased by 646%.
For more on Obama’s initiative and what it won’t do, see this piece by ProPublica’s Kara Brandeisky
(charts via the Sentencing Project)