Statistics
Five million children nationally experience separation from a parent as a result of parental incarceration and that children with a parent in prison are at increased risk of social, emotional, and behavioral disorders, delinquency, substance abuse, as well as cognitive delays and academic challenges.
These statistics reflect that women, trans and nonbinary people are increasingly being targeted by the punishment system and millions of children are being harmed by parental incarceration, further destabilizing poor and underserved communities.
We believe that working and advocating for the release of women, trans, and nonbinary people in prisons, who often experience criminalization for acts of survival, is a critical component of abolition and necessary for the reunification of incarcerated mothers and their children, as well as the stabilization of families, and low- income communities.
Below are a few statistics that inform our mission.
Content Warning: References to physical violence and sexual assault (SA)
Women comprised 15.3 percent of the average daily population in Virginia's local and regional jails in 2014 (orange wedge).
The population of incarcerated women increased by 32% from 2010 to 2014 alone (ACLU 2018).
Women’s* Share of Incarcerated Population, 2014: 15.3%
Between 1980 and 2021, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 525%, rising from a total of 26,326 in 1980 to 168,449 in 2021.
While 2020 saw a substantial downsizing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend reversed, with a 10% increase in 2021 (The Sentencing Project, 2022).
Incarcerated Women and Girls
Nearly one in six transgender people (16%) (including 21% of transgender women) have been incarcerated at some point in their lives—far higher than the rate for the general population (NCTE,2018). Among Black transgender people, nearly half (47%) have been incarcerated at some point (NCTE, 2012).
Given the age of this data and low availability of data currently on incarceration rates of transgender women, this data likely understates the rates of incarceration experienced by trans women of color.
Rate of incarceration, transgender women
21%
Images Sourced from Scalawag Magazine
Share of Incarcerated Women Survivors (orange): 57%
Among women in state prisons in the U.S., 57 percent had been physically or sexually abused prior to incarceration. The rate of prior sexual abuse of women was six times higher than the comparable rate for incarcerated men (ACLU 2018).
When compared with girls who have not been abused and neglected during childhood:
Abused and neglected girls are nearly twice as likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system, twice as likely to be arrested as adults, and 2.4 times more likely to be arrested for a violent crime(ACLU, 2018).
Mass incarceration functions as a way of targeting those most marginalized by white-supremacist, hetero-patriarchal society. Abolition of the Prison-Industrial-Complex and the reunification of families torn apart by this system must, and will, come to pass.
Share of Incarcerated Women Pregnant or Mother to newborns
More than half of all women in U.S. prisons and 80 percent of all women in U.S. jails are mothers, and most were the sole or primary caretakers of their children (ACLU 2018).
Incarcerated Mothers, 80% of Women incarcerated in US Jails
Of all the women incarcerated in the U.S., 25 percent are pregnant or have a child under the age of one at the time of their incarceration (Motherhood Beyond Bars).