Center for Justice Innovation reposted this
At last week's launch, CCJ’s Women’s Justice Commission released a report - Women's Justice: A Preliminary Assessment of Women in the Criminal Justice System - examining women’s pathways into the justice system and the unique challenges they face. It was produced by CCJ Senior Policy Specialist Liza Bayless, Policy Specialist Cameryn Farrow, and Policy Director Stephanie C. Kennedy, PhD, MSW. Some key findings from the report include: ➡ The incarceration rate for women in U.S. prisons and jails has trended upward over the past several decades. In 2022, there were about 181,000 incarcerated women. More than half were in local jails, 43% were in state prisons, and 6% were in federal prisons. ➡ Nine out of 10 justice-involved women have experienced childhood abuse or trauma, while 7 in 10 incarcerated women report experiencing violent victimization by an intimate partner. Two-thirds of women in prison were diagnosed with a mental health disorder, compared to ~1/3 of men. ➡ Women have specific health-related needs that prisons and jails struggle to meet. Challenges range from insufficient menstruation supplies to pregnancy and menopausal care and treatment of women’s higher reported rates of mental/physical health conditions and substance use disorders. ➡ More than half of women in prisons are parents to minor children, and estimates suggest that at least 3/4 of women in jails are mothers. Mothers were more than twice as likely as fathers to be the sole or primary caretakers of their children prior to entering jail or prison. Learn more from the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gzxZ_FuD