MORE WOMEN ARE IN PRISON FOR DRUGS

WASHINGTON - The war on drugs has sent an increasing number of women to
prison, according to a study released yesterday. It also says that
two-thirds of incarcerated women have children under 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 nearly tenfold,
from 2,400 in 1986 to 23,700 in 1996, the study said. For nondrug crimes,
the number of imprisoned women more than doubled, rising from 17,200 to
39,400. In other words, drug crimes accounted for about half 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 in prison still are far below those of men.

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 nondrug
offenses, 391,400 men were imprisoned in 1986, compared with almost twice
as many, 767,500, 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.

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

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.