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<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/">https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">States of Women's Incarceration: The
Global Context</h1>
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<div id="reader-estimated-time">
<h3><font size="-2">By <a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/staff.html#kajstura">Aleks
Kajstura</a> and Russ Immarigeon</font></h3>
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<p>
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<div class="para">
<p class="bold">Introduction</p>
<p>We already know that when it comes to incarceration,
the United States is truly exceptional. As we have <a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/"
title="States of Incarceration: The Global Context">reported
previously</a>, the United States incarcerates 716
people for every 100,000 residents, more than any
other country. Worldwide, and within the U.S., the
vast majority of those incarcerated are men. As a
result, women's incarceration rates are overshadowed
and often lost in the data. As a first step in
documenting how women fare in the world's carceral
landscape, this report compares the incarceration
rates for women of each U.S. state with the equivalent
rates for countries around the world.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p class="bold">Outpacing the world</p>
<p>Only 5% of the world's female population lives in the
U.S., but the U.S. accounts for nearly 30% of the
world's incarcerated women.
</p>
</div>
<div class="title-bar"><i><b>World Women's Incarceration
Rates If Every U.S. State Were A Country (Graphic
Insert - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/">https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/</a>)</b></i><br>
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<p>Across the globe, the 25 jurisdictions with the highest
rates of incarcerating women are all American states.
Thailand, at number 26, is the first non-U.S. government
to appear on this high-end list, followed closely at
number 27 by the Unites States itself. The next 17
jurisdictions are also American states.
</p>
<p>
Overall, with the exception of Thailand and the U.S.
itself, the top 44 jurisdictions throughout the world
with the highest rate of incarcerating women are
individual American states.
</p>
<p>
Nearly 30% of the world's incarcerated women are in the
United States, twice the percentage as in China and four
times as much as in Russia.
</p>
<p>
Putting U.S. states in a global context is sobering;
even the U.S. states that have comparatively low rates
of incarceration far out-incarcerate the majority of the
world.
</p>
<p>
Illinois' incarceration rate for women is on par with El
Salvador, where abortion is illegal and <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24532694">women
are routinely jailed for having miscarriages</a>. New
Hampshire is on par with Russia, and New York with
Rwanda.
</p>
<p>
Rhode Island, which has the lowest incarceration rate
for women in the U.S., would have the 15<sup
class="superscript">th</sup> highest incarceration
rate in the world if it were a country. In other words,
only 14 countries (not including the United States)
incarcerate women at a higher rate than Rhode Island,
the U.S. state that incarcerates women at the lowest
rate of imprisonment.
</p>
<p class="bold">Outpacing our peers</p>
<p>
As we report, the United States incarcerates women at a
rate similar only to Thailand. But looking instead to
our international peers, exactly how does the U.S.
measure up with other nations?
</p>
<p>For comparison we use some of our closest allies, the
founding countries of the North American Treaty
Organization (NATO). These NATO countries incarcerate
women at a rate eight to twenty-five times lower than
the United States as a whole:<a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/NATO_genderincarceration.html"><img
src="https://static.prisonpolicy.org/images/NATO_genderincarceration.png"
alt="Graph showing that the United States
incarcerates women at higher rates than other
NATO-founding countries. The U.S. incarcerates women
at a rate of 127 per 100,000, Portugal at 16, United
Kingdom at 13, Canada at 11, Luxemburg and Belgium
at 9, Norway and the Netherlands at 8, Italy at 7,
France at 6, and Denmark at 5." class="nato"></a> </p>
<p>As we have noted, Rhode Island has the lowest women's
incarceration rate in the U.S., but it still has a rate
more than twice that of Portugal, which has the second
highest rate of incarcerating women among founding NATO
nations. Nationally, the U.S. incarcerates women at a
rate eight times higher than Portugal.
</p>
<p class="right caption"><a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/women_rate_1910-2014.html"><img
src="https://static.prisonpolicy.org/images/women_rate_1910-2014.jpg"
alt="Graph showing rate of women's incarceration in
the U.S. between 1910 and 2014. The rate remains
mostly below 20 per 100,000 before climbing sharply
after 1980, settling well above 120 in the current
century." class="right" height="275" width="370"></a>The
United States’ incarceration rate for women is currently
more than eight times higher than it was throughout most
of the 20<sup class="superscript">th</sup> century.</p>
<p class="bold">Outpacing ourselves</p>
<p>In the U.S., we are not only incarcerating women far
more than nearly all other nations, but we are also
incarcerating women far more than we have done in the
recent past. The sudden growth of incarceration in our
country has been staggering; our incarceration rate
nearly tripled between 1980 and 1990.
</p>
<p>
Our own history demonstrates that high rates of
incarceration are not an essential part of American
policy; rather they are the outcomes of a series of now
regrettable policy choices by federal, state and local
officials in the last three decades.
</p>
<p class="bold">Conclusion</p>
<p>
Currently prisons and jails in the U.S. confine
approximately 206,000 women (at a rate of 127 per
100,000). Within the U.S., it is commonly noted that
women are incarcerated far less frequently than men, but
comparing women's incarceration rate to that for men
paints a falsely optimistic picture. When compared to
jurisdictions across the globe, even the U.S. states
with the lowest levels of incarceration are far out of
line.
</p>
<p>
The statistics revealed by this report are simple and
staggering. They suggest that states cannot remain
complacent about how many women they incarcerate. Women
should be a mainstay of any state policy discussions on
the economical and effective use of incarceration if we
hope to incarcerate fewer women.
</p>
<p id="data" class="bold">About the data</p>
<p>This report compares the prevalence of incarceration in
individual U.S. states with other countries, and
therefore brings together data on the number of women
incarcerated in states and countries as a portion of the
states' or countries' total female populations. This
report also puts together several different datasets to
show the growth of the incarceration rate for women in
the United States over time.
</p>
<p><i>U.S. State data:</i></p>
<div class="sourceblock">
<p>
We choose to use U.S. Census data because we wanted to
be sure to include all the forms of incarceration in
the United States. (The Bureau of Justice Statistics
has not published state-level estimates of the U.S.
jail population — which makes up 30% of the <a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie.html">total
mass incarceration pie</a> — since 2006.) We used <a
href="https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2011/04/20/groupquartersreleased/">U.S.
Census 2010 data</a> that shows the total number of
people in each state who are confined in local, state,
and federal adult correctional facilities. The women's
population was calculated by aggregating female
population reported for all age groups in these adult
correctional facilities.
</p>
<p>
This powerful census dataset comes with one quirk
worth discussing: the Census Bureau counts
incarcerated people as if they were residents of
prison locations rather than their home communities.
In the case of state prison systems that send a large
number of people to prisons in other states, or in the
context of federal prisons, this Census Bureau
residence determination can influence a state's
incarceration rate calculated with that data. A
significant portion of West Virginia (61%),
Connecticut (51%) and Minnesota's (43%) female prison
population appear to be women in federal facilities
located within the state's borders. We did not attempt
to factor out these populations for two reasons.
First, as a practical matter, systematically
disentangling the Census Bureau's reported
incarcerated populations into discrete jurisdictional
categories is impractical. And secondly, federal
prisons are not sited randomly; states which host
federal prisons are active partners in buoying
incarceration.
</p>
</div>
<p><i>Country data:</i></p>
<div class="sourceblock">
<p>
The women's incarceration rate for each country was
calculated using two incarceration datasets from the
Institute for Criminal Policy Research and population
data from the United Nations and other sources.
</p>
<p>
The number of women incarcerated in each country was
calculated based on the Institute for Criminal Policy
Research's World Prison Brief's <a
href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/female-prisoners?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">Highest
to Lowest - Female prisoners (percentage of prison
population)</a> which provided the percentage of
each country's incarcerated population that is female,
and the corresponding <a
href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-population-total?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">list
of incarcerated population totals for each country</a>.
(For some countries, the World Prison Brief includes
some number of girls in the numbers of incarcerated
women.)
</p>
<p>
For most countries' women's population we relied on
the United Nations' <a
href="http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/DVD/">World
Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Total
Population - Female file</a>. For Taiwan and
countries within the United Kingdom, the UN's World
Population Prospects and the ICPR's World Prison Brief
were incompatible, so we relied on individual country
censuses for female population totals for each
jurisdiction. We used <a
href="http://ebas1.ebas.gov.tw/phc2010/english/rehome.htm">Taiwan's
2010 Census</a>, and for the United Kingdom, <a
href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-310118">England
& Wales</a>, <a
href="http://www.ninis2.nisra.gov.uk/public/PivotGrid.aspx?ds=6609&lh=74&yn=2011&sk=136&sn=Census%202011&yearfilter=2037">Northern
Ireland</a>, and
<a
href="http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-web/standard-outputs.html">Scotland</a>
(Year 2011, Table DC1117SC).
</p>
<p>
We were unable to calculate the rate of incarceration
for women in four jurisdictions within the former
Yugoslavia. The World Prison Brief publishes
incarceration data separately for Serbia and Kosovo,
and Bosnia and Herzegovina: Federation and Bosnia and
Herzegovina: Republika Srpska separately, but reliable
female population counts are only available for each
pair of jurisdictions combined, so we could not
calculate an incarceration rate.
</p>
<p>
Finally, to make the comparisons in this report more
meaningful, we've chosen to only include nations with
a total population of at least 250,000 women. For that
reason, Iceland, which is also one of the original
NATO founders, is not included in the NATO graph, or
the full list above. For those interested, Iceland's
incarceration rate is lowest among the NATO founders,
at 3 per 100,000.</p>
</div>
<p id="historical"><i>U.S. historical data:</i></p>
<div class="sourceblock">
<p>
The historical graph was calculated using different
datasets that included women in all types of
correctional facilities (including jails) and the
total U.S. women's population for the corresponding
year.
</p>
<p>
Historical data for the number of women incarcerated
in prisons 1910 and 1923 was calculated based on
incarceration data from the Bureau of Justice
Statistics' <a
href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcsus5084.pdf#page=80">Historical
Corrections Statistics in the United States,
1850-1984</a> (Table 3-31. Characteristics of
Persons in State and Federal Prisons). The data for
1933 through 1970 came from Bureau of Justice
Statistics' <a
href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/sfp2585.pdf#page=2">State
and Federal
Prisoners, 1925-85</a> (Table 1. Sentenced prisoners
in State and Federal institutions: Number and
incarceration rates, 1925-85). And data for 1980
through 2014 came from the Bureau of Justice
Statistics' National Prisoner Statistics Program, <a
href="http://www.bjs.gov/nps/resources/documents/QT_sentenced%20jurisdiction%20count_female.xlsx">Sentenced
female prisoners under the jurisdiction of state or
federal correctional authorities, December 31,
1978-2014</a> (XLSX).
</p>
<p>
The historical numbers of women incarcerated in jails
is also based on multiple sources.
For 1910 through 1980 and 1982 we calculated the
number of women incarcerated in jails based on Bureau
of Justice Statistics' <a
href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/hcsus5084.pdf#page=106">Historical
Corrections Statistics in the United States,
1850-1984</a> (Table 4-15. Characteristics of
Persons in Jails). (We were unable to identify any
source for the number of women incarcerated in jails
in 1981.) From 1983 to 1994, Bureau of Justice
Statistics' <a
href="http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/scjs94.pdf#page=542">Sourcebook
of Criminal Justice Statistics - 1994</a> (Table
6.11 Number of Jail inmates, average dally population,
and rated capacity: By legal status and sex, United
States, 1983-94). For years 1995 through 1999, and
2001 through 2004, the number of incarcerated women in
jails was calculated from the Sourcebook of criminal
justice statistics Online's <a
href="http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t6172012.pdf">Table
6.17.2012, Jail inmates, By sex, race, Hispanic
origin, and conviction status, United States,
1990-2012</a> and <a
href="http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t612011.pdf">Table
6.1.2011, Adults on probation, in jail or prison,
and on parole United States, 1980-2011</a>. And
numbers for 2000 and 2005 through 2014 are from Bureau
of Justice Statistics' <a
href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/jim14.pdf#page=3">Jail
Inmates at Midyear 2014</a> (Table 2. Number of
inmates in local jails, by characteristics, midyear
2000 and 2005-2014).
</p>
<p>
From the data above, we calculated the total number of
women incarcerated in each year, but in order to
calculate the rate of incarceration, we also needed
the total number of women in the U.S. for each year.
Population data until 1980 and for 1990, was
calculated based on sex ratios from the Census
Bureau's <a
href="https://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf#page=168">Demographic
Trends in the 20th Century Census 2000 Special
Reports</a> (Table 6. Population by Sex for the
United States, Regions, and States: 1900 to 2000, Part
B. Female) and the total U.S. population reported by
the Census Bureau. The sex ratios were reported
decennially, so for 1923 and 1933 we estimated the
ratio based on an adjusted percentage of change
between the bookend decades that were reported.
Starting with 1980 (except for 1990), we took the
female population numbers directly from the U.S.
Census Bureau's intercensal estimates and decennial
census counts. Total female U.S. population for 1982
through 1989 came from the Census Bureau's <a
href="http://www.census.gov/popest/data/historical/1980s/datasets.html">Quarterly
Population Estimates, 1980 to 1990</a> and the data
for 1991 through 1999 came from the Census Bureau's <a
href="http://www.census.gov/popest/data/intercensal/index.html">Intercensal
Estimates (1990-2000)</a>, and 2000 through 2014
from the Census Bureau's <a
href="http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/PEP/2014/PEPSR6H">American
FactFinder</a>.
</p>
</div>
<p class="bold">About the authors</p>
<p>
The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative
produces cutting edge research to expose the broader
harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy
campaigns to create a more just society. This report was
prepared by <a
href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/staff.html#kajstura">Aleks
Kajstura</a>, Legal Director of the Prison Policy
Initiative, and Russ Immarigeon, an independent
researcher and editor of the two-volume set, <a
href="http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/wgc_book.html">Women
and Girls in the Criminal Justice System: Policy
Strategies and Program Options</a> (Civic Research
Institute, 2006, 2011).
</p>
<p class="bold">Acknowledgements</p>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
We extend a special thanks to </p>
<a href="http://joshbegley.com/">Josh Begley</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
for his innovative work on </p>
<a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/">States of
Incarceration: The Global Context</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">,
upon which this report relied, and Elydah Joyce for her
work on the NATO graphic.
</p>
<p class="bold"><a id="footnotes" class="nodec">Citations:</a></p>
<div class="ctr">
<div class="ctr"><a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/"><img
class="lgo"
src="https://static.prisonpolicy.org/global/ppi.png"
alt="Prison Policy Initiative logo" height="57"
width="111"></a></div>
</div>
<div class="noprint"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
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