Women are the fastest growing incarcerated population in the United States. The female incarceration rate has ballooned by more than 700% since 1980 – 172,700 women and girls were in jail or prison in 2023. A quarter of these (46,300) are confined because they were either refused bail or cannot afford it, rather than because they were found guilty of a crime. Over 14,000 are awaiting trial for drug-related offenses.
Even brief contact with the prison system can have life-long impacts. It can increase the amount of time spent unemployed or out of the labour force by as much as four years, and reduce lifetime earnings by up to 50%. It can also exclude someone from many forms of employment, for example by running afoul of one the staggering 27,000 national, state and local rules that exist to bar formerly justice-involved people from holding professional licenses.
It can also increase personal debt, compounding economic woes. Leaving prison is expensive – many of those who leave prison violate their probation simply because they don’t have enough money.
