Female Incarceration

Female Incarceration

Is the incarceration rate of females in the United States rising?

Drug War Facts: Women; http://www.drugwarfacts.org/women.htm

The Drug War Facts website is a great statistical resource. The information presented on the site is complied from several criminal and federal justice statistic websites and organized in a concise format. I felt that the information was accurate and reliable as all statistics were cited from a credible, and in most cases, government web resource.

New Incarceration Figures: Three Consecutive Years of Growth; http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1044.pdf

This website provides statistics about the rapid increase of incarceration rates in the United States and its causes. The site discusses several reasons for the increase, focusing on women’s incarceration and its growth for only a small section. While the site provides valuable and reliable information, I was only able to utilize a portion of it for my research. I would have liked to see this site expand on the reasons for female imprisonment increases rather than merely touch on them.

Women in Prison in the US: Facts and Figures; http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=728

I felt this website was a reliable source of statistical information, all resources were cited from government agencies. This site provided many facts about women’s rising incarceration rates, however no relevant information was presented regarding the cause of this rise, which would have been more helpful in my research.

Through my research, I have learned that female incarceration rates are rising at nearly double the rate of men. They are the fastest growing and least violent segment of prison and jail populace, with a population that has doubled in only 5 years now exceeding 200,000 (New Incarceration Figures). All sites that I have utilized propose that the number one reason behind this dramatic rise is drug crimes and the increase of women’s involvement in them. According to Drug War Facts,