FEMALE INMATE NUMBERS INCREASING

NEW YORK - Oklahoma, Mississippi and the Mountain states have set the
pace in increasing the imprisonment of women, while several
Northeastern states are curtailing the practice, according to a new
report detailing sharp regional differences in the handling of female
offenders.

The report, to be released Sunday by the New York-based Women's
Prison Association, is touted as the most comprehensive
state-by-state breakdown of the huge increase in incarceration of
women over the past 30 years.

Overall, the number of female state inmates serving sentences of more
than a year grew by 757 percent between 1977 and 2004, nearly twice
the 388 percent increase for men, the report said.

Though the surge occurred nationwide, it was most notable in the
Mountain states, where the number of incarcerated women soared by
1,600 percent, the report said.

State figures: According to federal statistics cited in the report,
Colorado had 72 female inmates in 1997 and 1,900 in 2004, while the
comparable numbers increased from 28 to 647 in Idaho, from two to 473
in Montana, from 187 to 2,545 in Arizona and from 30 to 502 in Utah.

Idaho, Wyoming and Montana were among six states, along with
Oklahoma, North Dakota and Hawaii, where women comprised more than 10
percent of the prison population in 2004 - compared to the national
average of 7 percent. In Rhode Island, by contrast, only 3.2 percent
of the inmates were women.

In North Dakota, the Dakota Women's Correctional Rehabilitation
Center in New England began taking inmates in November 2003. Earlier
this month, the number of prisoners stood at 117, nine short of capacity.

Oklahoma had the highest per capita imprisonment rate for women - 129
behind bars for every 100,000 women in its population. Mississippi
was second with a rate of 107. Women in those states were roughly 10
times more likely to be imprisoned than women in Massachusetts and
Rhode Island, which shared the lowest rate of 11.

Varies by region: Nationwide, there were 1.42 million inmates in
state and federal prisons at the end of 2004, including 96,125 women
- - up from 11,212 in 1977.

Though the overall surge of women behind bars has continued in recent
years, it has tapered off in the Northeast, the report said. From
1999 to 2004, it said, the number of female inmates dropped by 23
percent in New York and 21 percent in New Jersey - part of broader
reductions that also cut the number of male inmates.

Drug war: The report concurred with previous analyses attributing
much of the nationwide increase in women's imprisonment to the war on
drugs. The proportion of women serving time for drug offenses has
risen sharply in recent years, while the proportion convicted of
serious violent crimes has dropped, it said.

Bob Anez, a Corrections Department spokesman in Montana, confirmed
that drug offenses - especially related to methamphetamine - were a
major factor in the high proportion of female inmates in the state.
Half the women imprisoned from January through March had committed
meth-related offenses, he said.

Jerry Massie of Oklahoma's Corrections Department also said rising
drug convictions were a factor in the high number of imprisoned
women, but he noted that Oklahoma has one of the highest
incarceration rates for men as well as for women.

Ann Jacobs, executive director of the Women's Prison Association,
said states with high rates of women behind bars should look closely
at alternative sentencing, particularly mandatory treatment as an
option for drug offenders.

"It's startling to think that Oklahoma incarcerates 129 of every
100,000 women, while other states can provide public safety by
incarcerating 11 of every 100,000," she said. "Women in Oklahoma
can't possibly be 10 times worse."

K.C. Moon, executive director of the Oklahoma Criminal Justice
Resource Center, said the state's high incarceration rate is linked
to the types of crimes that are felonies - including simple drug
possession and relatively minor thefts.

"Those are two types of crimes that are typically committed by
women," Moon said. "In Oklahoma, we choose to make lower-level crimes
felonies, therefore we stand out like a sore thumb."

The Women's Prison Association and like-minded groups focus attention
on female inmates in part because they are more likely than men to be
primary caretakers of children, and their incarceration can place
severe strains on families.

The report urged an expansion of research to identify factors that
have contributed to the increase of female inmates and to develop
policies which help at-risk women lead law-abiding, self-sufficient
lives. Jacobs said the reduction of female inmates now occurring in
some Northeast states would be worth celebrating only if coupled with
investment in social programs that could reduce recidivism.

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.