Political and grassroots campaigning could mean welcome reform for the many women in US and UK prisonsThere are some statistics that no matter how many times they are repeated continue to shock and bewilder. Among these is the number of people incarcerated in the US. Between 1980 and 2008,the prisoner population more than quadrupled from around 500000 to 2.3 million. With just 5% of the world’s population, America now accounts for 25% of all people behind bars globally.
The overall figures are noxious enough, or as are the proportion of black and Hispanic prisoners,who are grossly overrepresented in the US criminal justice system. But it is the rise in the female prison population, including mothers, and which is especially alarming. Since 1980,the number of women in jail has grown 1.5 times faster than that of men – a rise of 646%. Women now comprise 7% of the national prison population.
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Source: theguardian.com