"A smaller percentage of female prisoners in 2015 were age 55 or older (7%) compared to males (almost 11%). The percentage of white female prisoners age 55 or older was higher for the other race groups of female prisoners. Twice as many white females (52,700 prisoners) than black females (21,700) were in state and federal prison at yearend 2015. However, the imprisonment rate for black females (103 per 100,000 black female residents) was almost double that for white females (52 per 100,000) (appendix table 4). Among any age group, black females were between 1.5 and 4.0 times more likely to be imprisoned than white females and between 1.1 and 2.0 times more likely than Hispanic females. As with males, females ages 30 to 34 had the highest rates of imprisonment of any age group (184 per 100,000 female residents)."

Click here for complete datatable for Women in the US Sentenced and Serving Time in Either State or Federal Jurisdiction: 2000 and 2010-2015

^{Note: The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines Imprisonment Rate as "the number of prisoners under state or federal jurisdiction sentenced to more than 1 year per 100,000 U.S. residents."
a: Includes American Indians and Alaska Natives; Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders; and persons of two or more races.
b: Excludes persons of Hispanic or Latino origen.}
*: Number of women identifying as "other" not provided separately until 2012, so for 2000 and 2010-2011, this figure was derived by subtracting the number of non-Latina whites, non-Latina blacks, and Latinas from the total. As a result, the imprisonment rate is not available.

"24 states and the District of Columbia consider substance use during pregnancy to be child abuse under civil child-welfare statutes, and 3 consider it grounds for civil commitment.

"23 states and the District of Columbia require health care professionals to report suspected prenatal drug use, and 7 states require them to test for prenatal drug exposure if they suspect drug use.

"19 states have either created or funded drug treatment programs specifically targeted to pregnant women, and 17 states and the District of Columbia provide pregnant women with priority access to state-funded drug treatment programs.

"10 states prohibit publicly funded drug treatment programs from discriminating against pregnant women."

State: "More than half (53% or 696,900 prisoners) of all state prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year on December 31, 2014 (the most recent year for which state prison offense data are available) were serving sentences for violent offenses on their current term of imprisonment (table 9) (appendix table 5). At yearend 2014, 13% of sentenced prisoners (171,700 prisoners) were serving time in state prison for murder or nonnegligent manslaughter. An additional 162,800 state prisoners (12%) had been sentenced for rape or sexual assault. On December 31, 2015, 249,900 state prisoners (19%) were sentenced to at least 1 year for property offenses. Sixteen percent of state prisoners were serving sentences for drug-related offenses (206,300 prisoners).
"Violent offenders represented more than half (54%) of the sentenced male state prisoners. More than a third (36%) of female prisoners were violent offenders. Eighteen percent (223,700) of male state prisoners and 28% (26,000) of females were sentenced for property offenses. Twenty-five percent of female state prisoners (23,500 females) and 15% of male state prisoners (182,700 males) were sentenced for drug offenses."
Federal: "Almost 50% (92,000 prisoners) of sentenced federal prisoners on September 30, 2015 (the most recent date for which federal offense data are available) were serving time for drug offenses (table 10) (appendix table 6). An additional 36% of federal offenders (67,500 prisoners) were imprisoned for public order offenses, including 30,200 (16% of all federal prisoners) for weapons offenses and 14,900 (8%) for adjudicated immigration crimes. While 53% of sentenced state prisoners were serving time for violent offenses, 7% of federal prisoners (13,700 prisoners) were serving sentences for violent crimes.
"Among female federal prisoners, 59% were serving sentences for drug offenses, compared to 49% of males. A larger proportion of white prisoners in federal prison (42%) were serving time for public order offenses on September 30, 2015 than blacks (32%) or Hispanics (37%). More than half of black (51%) and Hispanic (58%) federal prisoners in 2015 were convicted of drug offenses."

"• In 2013, as in prior years, the rate of current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older was higher for males (11.5 percent) than for females (7.3 percent). Males were more likely than females to be current users of several different illicit drugs, including marijuana (9.7 vs. 5.6 percent), cocaine (0.8 vs. 0.4 percent), and hallucinogens (0.7 vs. 0.3 percent).
"• In 2013, the rate of current illicit drug use was higher for males than females aged 12 to 17 (9.6 vs. 8.0 percent). This represents a change from 2012, when the rates of current illicit drug use were similar among males and females aged 12 to 17 (9.6 and 9.5 percent, respectively), and reflects a decrease in the rate of current illicit drug use among females from 2012 to 2013. Likewise, in 2013, the rate of current marijuana use was higher for males than females aged 12 to 17 (7.9 vs. 6.2 percent), which is a change from 2012 when the rates of current marijuana use for males and females were similar (7.5 and 7.0 percent).
"• The rate of current marijuana use among males aged 12 to 17 declined from 9.1 percent in 2002 to 6.9 percent in 2006, then increased between 2006 and 2011 (9.0 percent) (Figure 2.11). The rate decreased from 2011 to 2012 (7.5 percent) and remained stable in 2013 (7.9 percent). Among females aged 12 to 17, the rate of current marijuana use decreased from 7.2 percent in 2002 and 2003 to 6.2 percent in 2013."

"Almost half (48%) of all mothers held in the nation’s prisons at midyear 2007 were white, 28% were black, and 17% were Hispanic. Of the estimated 147,400 children with a mother in prison, about 45% had a white mother. A smaller percentage of the children had a black (30%) or Hispanic (19%) mother."

"The nation’s prisons held approximately 744,200 fathers and 65,600 mothers at midyear 2007 (appendix table 1). Fathers in prison reported having 1,559,200 children; mothers reported 147,400."

"• Rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization among prison inmates were higher among females (6.9%) than males (1.7%), higher among whites (2.9%) or inmates of two or more races (4.0%) than among blacks (1.3%), higher among inmates with a college degree (2.7%) than among inmates who had not completed high school (1.9%), and lower among currently married inmates (1.4%) than among inmates who never married (2.1%) (table 7).
??"• Similar patterns of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization were reported by jail inmates. Female jail inmates (3.6%), whites (2.0%), and inmates with a college degree (3.0%) reported higher rates of victimization than males (1.4%), blacks (1.1%), and inmates who had not completed high school (1.4%).
??"• Rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization were unrelated to age among state and federal prisoners, except for slightly lower rates among inmates age 55 or older.
??"• Rates were lower among jail inmates in the oldest age categories (ages 35 to 44, 45 to 54, and 55 or older) than among jail inmates ages 20 to 24."

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at midyear 2010, the incarceration rate for women was 126 per 100,000 population. The rate for non-Hispanic white females was 91, for non-Hispanic black females the rate was 260, and for Hispanic women the rate was 133.

"Female state prison population growth has far outpaced male growth in the past quarter-century. The number of women serving sentences of more than a year grew by 757 percent between 1977 and 2004 – nearly twice the 388 percent increase in the male prison population."

"Federal and state laws prohibit rape and sexual assault and the policies of jail and prison authorities generally prohibit sexual conduct that is not part of the duties of staff. However, the duties of male guards include conduct that is not prohibited by law but which greatly distresses female inmates, in particular searches for contraband which require guards to touch their bodies, and guards' surveillance of them when they are undressed.
"Under anti-discrimination employment laws in the USA, prisons and jails cannot refuse to employ men to supervise female inmates (or women to supervise male inmates) and in many states there are few restrictions on their duties. A 1997 survey of prisons in 40 states found that on average 41 percent of the correctional officers working with female inmates are men.(9)
"The employment of men to guard women is inconsistent with international standards set out in the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Rules 53(2) and 53(3) state that female prisoners should be attended and supervised only by female officers and that male staff, such as doctors and teachers who provide professional services in female facilities, should always be accompanied by female officers. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women has called on all countries to "fully implement the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and ensure that protective measures are guaranteed in all situations of custody."(10) Amnesty International agrees: the nature and extent of sexual abuse of female inmates by male staff in jails and prisons in the USA, and the harm that sexual abuse causes, warrants strong and immediate action by authorities to provide the protection to which incarcerated women are entitled under international standards."

"To be equally represented in treatment, the ratio of males to females in treatment should be similar to the ratio of males to females in problem drug use. Using past-month prevalence as a proxy for problematic use,²⁴ gender-disaggregated data from EMCDDA on past-month prevalence and outpatient clients in treatment suggest that in most countries in Europe females could be underrepresented in treatment for the problematic use of cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines (see figure 5). There are few studies that analyse gender differences in the accessibility of treatment services; however, the ratio of males and females reported in treatment in Europe was 4:1 — higher than the ratio between male and female drug users.²⁵ In many developing countries, there are limited services for the treatment and care of female drug users and the stigma associated with being a female drug user can make accessibility to treatment even more difficult. In Afghanistan, for instance, 10 per cent of all estimated drug users have access to treatment services,²⁶ whereas only 4 per cent of female drug users and their partners have access to treatment services and interventions."

"More than 70 percent of women in prison have children. Even before a mother’s arrest and separation from the family unit, many children will have experienced emotional hardship associated with parental substance abuse and economic instability. While she is incarcerated they suffer additional trauma, anxiety, guilt, shame and fear.³⁰
"More than half of mothers in prison have no visits with their children for the duration of their time behind bars.³¹ Children are generally subject to instability and uncertainly while their mothers are imprisoned."

"Forty-four percent of women under correctional authority [including 57% of the women in State prisons], reported that they were physically or sexually assaulted at some time during their lives. Sixty-nine percent of women reporting an assault said that it had occurred before age 18."

"Other efforts to explain the sharp increase in women’s imprisonment have focused on the 'war on drugs,' with its emphasis on street-level sweeps of those engaged in the drug trade and harsh mandatory sentencing. The crackdown on drug crime was sold to the American public as the answer to an escalating epidemic of male violence. Yet despite their roles as relatively minor players in the drug trade, women – disproportionate numbers of them African American and Latina – have been 'caught in the net' of increasingly punitive policing, prosecutorial, and sentencing policies.¹⁹ Once in the system, women often have little choice but to accept plea bargains and then face mandatory minimum sentencing laws that restrict judges from mitigating the impact of their sentencing decisions in consideration of their family situations or their obvious need for substance abuse treatment."