IS FEMALE INCARCERATION ON THE RISE?
No. After peaking several years ago, women’s incarceration rates are declining, but they are not falling as fast as the rates for men. Though many more men are in prison than women, the rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980. (The Sentencing Project, 2018)
In 2016, the imprisonment rate for African American women was twice the rate of imprisonment for white women. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2018) Hispanic women were imprisoned at 1.4 times the rate of white women. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012)
The rate of imprisonment for African American women has been declining since 2000, while the rate of imprisonment for white and Hispanic women continues to rise. (The Sentencing Project, 2018)
Page Updated 6/3/2019
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