Fact Sheet: Women, Prison, and the Drug War

February 2013

The perceived targets of drug law enforcement are men, but many of its victims are women. Largely as a result of draconian drug laws, women are now a fast growing segment of the U.S. prison population. More than three quarters of women behind bars are mothers, many of them sole caregivers. Women, and particularly women of color, are disproportionately affected by drug law enforcement, by social stigma, by laws that punish those unable or unwilling to inform on others, by regulations that bar people with a drug conviction from obtaining public assistance, and by a drug treatment system designed for men. Drug use and drug selling occur at similar rates across racial and ethnic groups, yet black and Latina women are far more likely to be criminalized for drug law violations than white women.1 Black women are more than two and a half times more likely than white women to be sent to prison, and Latinas are nearly 1.5 times more likely than white women to be imprisoned.2 U.S. Female Incarceration Rates, 2011 150 100 50 0
Rate Per 100,000 State and Federal Prison Source: E. Ann Carson and William J. Sabol, Prisoners in 2011 (Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012).

Female Drug Arrests, 1980-2010 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0

1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Arrest Data Analysis Tool. Sales Possession

The drug war drives these numbers: More than a quarter of women in state prison are incarcerated for a drug law violation, compared to 17 percent of men.4 At yearend 2010, more than 58 percent of women in federal prison were incarcerated for a drug law violation.5 Even though they use illicit drugs at similar rates during pregnancy, black women are far more likely than white women to be reported to child welfare 6 services for drug use. One study found that black women were 10 times more likely than white women to 7 be reported to child welfare. More than half (54 percent) of incarcerated people are parents of minor children, including more than 120,000 mothers and 1.1 million fathers. Two-thirds of these parents are incarcerated for non-violent offenses, most of which are drug law violations.8 Sixty-one percent of women in state prison and 56 percent of women in federal prison were mothers of minor children in 2004 (the most recent year for which 9 data are available). As many as 2.7 million children (one in every 28) are growing up in U.S. households in which one or more 10 parents are incarcerated.

White Latina Black

Women are one of the fastest growing segments of the prison population. Between 1977 and 2010, the number of women in state and federal prisons grew by more than 800 percent.3

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The racial disparities seen in the incarcerated population replicate themselves among the children left behind: by 2008, one in nine (11.4 percent of) black children, one in 28 (3.5 percent of) Latino children and one in 57 (1.8 percent of) white children 11 had an incarcerated parent. Number of Women in State and Federal Prisons, 1977-2011 125,000 100,000 75,000 50,000 25,000 0 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010

Gynecologists opposes this practice because it puts the health of the woman and fetus at risk.13 The lifelong penalties and exclusions that follow a drug conviction have created a permanent second-class status for millions of Americans, who are often prohibited from voting, getting a job, securing a student loan, and accessing housing or other forms of public assistance. Because of the overwhelming racial disparities in drug law enforcement and sentencing, these collateral consequences disproportionately affect people of color.

Sources: E. Ann Carson and William J. Sabol, Prisoners in 2011 (Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012); and George Hill and Paige Harrison, Female prisoners under State or Federal jurisdiction, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Children with an Incarcerated Parent 15% 10% 5% 0%

1980 1990 2000 11.4% Black 3.5% 1.8% 2008 Latino White

Source: Bruce Western and Becky Pettit, Collateral Costs: Incarcerations Effect on Economic Mobility (Washington: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010).

According to the most recent data (2004), 84 percent of parents in federal prison and 62 percent of parents in state prison are housed 100 miles or more from their children.12 Pregnant women who are incarcerated for drug law violations often do not receive prenatal care. Children are often separated from their imprisoned mothers, causing irreparable damage to the child. Prisons commonly use restraints (handcuffs and shackles) on women in labor and during delivery regardless of their histories. Only 13 state departments of corrections (California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia) and Washington DC have banned this practice. The American College of Obstetricians and

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, National Survey on Drug Use & Health 2011 (Washington: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012); and Human Rights Watch, Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2008). 2 E. Ann Carson and William J. Sabol, Prisoners in 2011 (Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012), 9. 3 George Hill and Paige Harrison, Female prisoners under State or Federal jurisdiction, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/dtdata.cfm#corrections; and Carson and Sabol, Prisoners in 2011, Table 1. Prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or federal correctional authorities, December 31, 20002011. 4 Carson and Sabol, Prisoners in 2011, 9. 5 U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Justice Statistics Program, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/fjsrc/ 6 Sarah C. M. Roberts and Amani Nuru-Jeter, Universal Screening for Alcohol and Drug Use and Racial Disparities in Child Protective Services Reporting, Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research 39.1 (2012): 3-16. 7 Chasnoff IJ, Landress HJ, and Barrett ME, The prevalence of illicit-drug or alcohol use during pregnancy and discrepancies in mandatory reporting in Pinellas County, Florida. New England Journal of Medicine 322, no. 17 (1990):12021206. 8 Bruce Western and Becky Pettit, Collateral Costs: Incarcerations Effect on Economic Mobility. (Washington: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010) 4, http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=60960. 9 Lauren Glaze and Laura Maruschak, Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children. (Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010) 3, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/pptmc.pdf. 10 Western 4. 11 Ibid. 12 The Sentencing Project, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Trends 1991-2007 (2009), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/publications/inc _incarceratedparents.pdf. 13 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Health Care for Pregnant and Postpartum Incarcerated Women and Adolescent Females, (2011); and Institute on Women & Criminal Justice, Laws Banning Shackling during Childbirth Gaining Momentum Nationwide, (Women's Prison Association, 2011), http://wpaonline.org/pdf/Shackling%20Brief_final.pdf.

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