Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Even as prison populations decline, women in prison fare worse than men

  All 50 states are categorized by patterns of gender disparities
in this map by the Prison Policy Initiative. Click through for the
full-sized map, or read the linked article.
"Women have become the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population nationally," according to a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative. Even as prison populations decline, the impact on women is uneven, with women faring worse than men in 35 states, including Alaska. "The Gender Divide: Tracking women's state prison growth," by Wendy Sawyer (2018), shows both national trends and state-to-state variation. The report also looks at how incarcerated women differ from men, including that they are "more likely to enter prison with a history of abuse, trauma and mental health problems." And while in prison they are "more likely than men to experience serious psychological distress."