Women in Jail
America's Rising Female Jail Population
City and county jails in the USA are experiencing a boom in their female prison population. At a time when America's jail population is falling, why is the proportion of women in local prisons going up?
"Women compared to men are much more likely to be unemployed at the time that they are sent to jail", explains Olive Lu of the Vera Institute for Justice. As a result thousands of women across the USA are unable to make bail, languishing in the prison system. "They are incarcerated for crimes of poverty like theft, or maybe writing a bad check” says Susan Burton, founder of A New Way of Life, a non-profit that helps former female convicts reintegrate into civilian society. One glimmer of hope is the progressive idea of Education-Based Incarceration, which provides women with vocational and life-skills training. Former inmate Selena Lopez received a life-changing high school education behind bars. "I started feeling like I belonged and that I mattered”, says Lopez.
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