Thompson-El, Savage-Rodriguez, Bain, and Haven shed light on the compounding harms of incarceration, advocate for policy changes to create justice for all, and empower others to do the same. Lashonia Thompson-El, Kelly Savage-Rodriguez, Tiheba Bain, and Kimberly Haven are all formerly incarcerated women who are working tirelessly to support people-including women and girls-who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. Over the next week, we will highlight the stories of advocates who are working to change this. With fewer support services available to them, women who have been released face greater challenges finding work and housing. Not only are more women being incarcerated, but many women also leave incarceration with fewer resources and greater stress and financial strain- 80 percent of women in jail are mothers, and most of them are single parents. Even basic necessities like menstrual hygiene products, already in short supply before COVID-19, are harder to find now.
This lack of care has also been exacerbated by pandemic-related restrictions, leading to increased isolation, heightened fear, and even more dangerous conditions in overcrowded facilities. Jails are often dependent on county-level funding, so resources are even more limited. Services like reproductive health care and prenatal care are woefully inadequate, and facilities rarely provide appropriate gender-affirming care to incarcerated transgender people. Health systems in jails and prisons-also designed for cisgender men- frequently fail to meet basic needs of women and transgender people. LGBTQ women are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal legal system, and 21 percent of transgender women have been incarcerated during their lifetime (this number only increases for Black and brown transgender women).Īlthough women are more likely to experience serious psychological distress while incarcerated, they are less likely to have access to treatment, programs, and other services. And although research is lacking, we also know that prisons and jails, which presume a binary system of gender, largely overlook the needs of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people who are incarcerated. Incarcerated women also have high rates of chronic health issues, including physical and mental health conditions as well as substance use. Women are more likely to enter incarceration with a history of abuse, trauma, and mental health conditions- 86 percent of women in jail have experienced sexual violence and 77 percent have experienced intimate partner violence-but jails and prisons do little to address their needs. Research to explain this phenomenon is limited, but what we do know is that jails and prisons-which have historically been designed exclusively for men-fail women in distinct ways. It’s clear that decarceration efforts are leaving women behind. Women's incarceration rates are also climbing at double the rate of men’s in state prisons across the country. Although men’s jail populations actually fell 9 percent from 2008 to 2018, women’s jail populations grew 15 percent. Women have become the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population. It’s hard to believe that 50 years ago, almost 75 percent of counties held not a single woman in jail.
In 2019, there were more than 231,000 women and girls held in prisons and jails across the country.
The number of women incarcerated in the United States has skyrocketed in the last four decades, increasing 700 percent in 40 years. “Rosie” is the nickname for the women’s jail on Rikers. “Ladies First, Close Rosie,” read a sign held by one woman. Have been made even more dire by the COVID-19 pandemic. On a Monday afternoon in April, people gathered in front of the New York Stock Exchange and virtually on Zoom to rally for the release of the hundreds of women jailed on Rikers Island, where already abusive, decrepit, and unsanitary conditions
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