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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWomen in prison...
I was reading Louise Erdrich's newest novel - "The Sentence" - last night and stumbled onto this phrase.... "More women are in prison in the state of Minnesota than in all of Canada."
I checked, and it's true!! In fact, virtually every state in the US has more women in prison than in all of Canada.
Minnesota isn't # 1 in female incarceration. That dubious honor goes to Idaho.
All of Canada (39 million citizens) has 693 women in prison. Idaho (1.9 million) has 991 in prison at last report.
The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and our female incarceration rate is higher now than ever in the past.
Between 1980 and 2020, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 475%. Only 5% of the world's female population lives in the U.S., but the U.S. accounts for nearly 30% of the world's incarcerated women.
WTF is going on???
LuckyLib
(6,817 posts)who drag them along the crime trail.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)And I couldn't. It might be out there so do you have a link? Or is this just your opinion?
albacore
(2,398 posts)Google all the way. number of women in prison in Canada, population figures, number of women in prison in Minn, state with the largest number of women in prison...etc
Then...
https://www.sentencingproject.org/fact-sheet/incarcerated-women-and-girls/
And...
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/women/2018.html
The graph has the source on it... at the bottom.
luv2fly
(2,475 posts)I don't doubt the OP at all, I was more interested in the statement that so many women are in prison because of their ties to "sketchy men." The first link includes a link to a story about one woman who was forced into crime because of her relationship, but that's all I'm seeing.
Anyways, thank you.
albacore
(2,398 posts)around 1980, and are still going up.
Do we have more sketchy bad boys now?
I dunno.
rubbersole
(6,662 posts)Scrivener7
(50,921 posts)Can't be leaving out a whole profit area.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,309 posts)70sEraVet
(3,474 posts)Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)rurallib
(62,387 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,309 posts)the institution is public or private.
Really looking forward to seeing what those numbers look like in a post-Dobbs America when we get those 100,000 new cops coming down the pipe in the "Safer American Plan"!!!!!
Chainfire
(17,474 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,309 posts)sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)The above link is to the ACLU, and they get many of their facts from The Sentencing Project (in the link below).
Research on female incarceration is critical to understanding the full consequences of mass incarceration and to unraveling the policies and practices that lead to their criminalization. The number of incarcerated women was nearly five times higher in 2020 than in 1980.
There is, of course, more information out there.
Just in case anyone was curious.
Mysterian
(4,568 posts)destroyed our Fourth Amendment rights, and gave us the highest prison population of any society in the history of Earth.
IbogaProject
(2,789 posts)Many women get setup in some way or just accused by someone trying to lower their own trouble.
The other is punitive 'get to work' policies which unintentionally encourage criminality when women are stuck with kids they can't easily support.
albacore
(2,398 posts)Thanks.
One observation not mentioned. The numbers started spiking around 1980.
It's that fucking Reagan!
Almost any graph you look at shows 1980 to be a revolutionary year.
The decline of the middle class.
Wages vs. corporate profits.
Global warming.
That confused old fucker may have done us in... even decades after he died.