FEMALE IMPRISONMENT SURGES

Mountain States See 1,600% Increase From 1977 to 2004; Northeast Rate Decreases

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 today by the New York-based Women's Prison
Association, is billed 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.

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, in which women made up more than 10 percent
of the prison population in 2004 - compared with the national average
of 7 percent. In Rhode Island, by contrast, 3.2 percent of the inmates
were women.

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 as likely to be imprisoned than women in Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, which shared the lowest rate of 11. Maryland's rate was 39.

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.

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.

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.