WAR ON DRUGS INCREASES NUMBER OF WOMEN IN PRISON

WASHINGTON -- The war on drugs has sent an increasing number of women to
prison, according to a study released Wednesday. It also says two-thirds of
incarcerated women have children under age 18.

The drug war has had a "dramatic and disproportionate impact on women,"
said the report by The Sentencing Project, a private group devoted to
finding alternatives to imprisonment.

The number of women in state prisons for drug offenses rose from 2,400 in
1986 to 23,700 in 1996, nearly 10 times as many, the study said. For
non-drug crimes, the number of imprisoned women more than doubled, rising
from 17,200 to 39,400. In other words, drug crimes accounted for half of
the overall increase of women in state prisons.

The figures for women imprisoned for drug crimes start from a "relatively
low base, but it's still an enormous growth," said professor Alfred
Blumstein of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The numbers for women still are far below the numbers of men in prison.

In 1986, there were 34,400 men in state prisons for drug crimes, a number
that rose to 213,900 in 1996, more than six times as many. For non-drug
offenses, 391,400 men were imprisoned in 1986, compared with 767,500,
almost twice as many, a decade later. Drug crimes made up one-third of the
total increase.

"It is unclear to what extent our findings reflect changes in behavior and
criminality or changes in official responses to those behaviors," the
Sentencing Project's report said.

James Alan Fox, professor of criminal justice at Boston's Northeastern
University, said the study shows a strong impact of the drug war on both
men and women.

"This does not suggest that there has been any differential enforcement on
women," Fox said. But he added, "The impact on families and children is
obviously disproportionate when women are locked up."

Two-thirds of female state prison inmates had children under age 18, and
half of the women said their children had never visited them in prison.
Many children of female inmates were placed in foster care.

"Thus, women's incarceration results in a disruption of children's living
situation as well as creating emotional stress for both women and their
children," the report said.

The report focused further on three states -- New York, California and
Minnesota -- to show how the figures can vary across the country.

In New York, the number of women sentenced to state prison for drug crimes
rose from 209 in 1986 to 1,226 in 1995, nearly six times as many. For men,
the number tripled from 3,006 to 9,110.

Drug offenses accounted for 91 percent of the increase in the number of
women imprisoned in New York from 1986 to 1995, compared with 55 percent in
California and 26 percent in Minnesota.

One in three male prisoners in New York were serving drug sentences in
1997, but six of every 10 women were sentenced for a drug crime, the study
said. In California, about one in four male state prisoners in the same
year were imprisoned for a drug crime, compared with four of every 10
female inmates.

In Minnesota, a smaller share of the prison population was convicted of
drug offenses. In 1995, the report said, 19 percent of women's prison
sentences were for drug offenses, compared with 15 percent of men's sentences.

In all three states, black and Hispanic women made up a significantly
larger share of the women imprisoned for drug offenses than their share of
the state population.

The Sentencing Project recommended repealing mandatory sentencing laws,
expanding drug treatment inside and outside of prisons, and providing aid
for children of women in prison.