Women in prison... [View all]

[albacore]

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???