LIFE PUTS WOMEN IN PRISON

Poverty, unstable families and substance abuse all are factors influencing
women in Oklahoma's prisons, a task force learned Wednesday. . Crime
coverage

That message was brought to the Special Task Force for Women Incarcerated in
Oklahoma by Howard Hendrick, director of the state's Department of Human
Services, and Stephanie Covington, a nationally recognized scholar who helps
develop gender-based treatment and incarceration programs.

Oklahoma's Legislature approved creating the task force because Oklahoma
tops the nation on a per-capita basis in locking up women.

The state also has the fourth-highest per capita incarceration rate
generally, and fifth-highest on a per-capita basis for the numbers of men in
prison.

While crime rates in Oklahoma have increased 14 percent between 1974 and
2001, the state's incarceration rate jumped 440 percent.

In recent years, crime rates have dropped.

"You could argue the crime rate dropped because we are locking more people
up," Hendrick told task force members.

"But you can also interpret the data a lot of different ways."

Research done by Hendrick's staff showed that the female inmate population
grew twice as fast as the male population between 1990 and 1998.