Criminal justice. Imprisoned While Female

• Author: Darlene Ricker
• Pages: 16-17

National Pulse edited by

BLAIR CHAVIS

blair.chavis@americanbar.org

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Imprisoned

While Female

A new study looks at the prison system’s failure to address women’s

health and safety behind bars

BY DARLENE RICKER

When asked which legal

right most needs to

be remedied for wom-

en in prison, former

federal inmate Sharanda Jones put it

plainly: “the right to not be there in the

rst place.”

For Jones, the inconveniences, degra-

dation and safety risks she experienced

frequently paled in comparison to the

big picture. A rst-time offender of a

nonviolent crime—one count of con-

spiracy to distribute crack cocaine—she

was shocked to learn she would have to

serve her entire sentence.

All she could think was, “This is

my end. I’m going to die in this place,”

says Jones, who was sentenced to life

in prison without the possibility of

parole in 1999. In the federal system,

she notes, “A life sentence is not a life

sentence; it’s a death sentence. You are

sent there to die.”

Then-President Barack Obama com-

muted her sentence in 2015, but few get

that escape route. The number of incar-

cerated women is growing, and with it

the unique and pressing needs of female

prisoners in the system. In response, the

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights did an

18-month investigation. It released a re-

port, Women in Prison: Seeking Justice

Behind Bars, in February.

The population of women in prison

has increased dramatically since the

1980s, according to the report, and the

rate of increase has outpaced that of

men. In 2017, women accounted for

approximately 225,000 of the slightly

more than 2 million people in local,

state and federal facilities in this coun-

try, according to the Sentencing Project,

which tracks incarceration statistics.

The Women in Prison report cites

disciplinary disparities between men

and women—with a particularly nega-

tive impact on LGBT-identied women

and women of color—and notes that

many prisons do not meet the health,

prenatal and personal hygiene needs of

female inmates. It stresses the impact

of women being incarcerated far from

home with limited visitation access and

having their parental rights terminated.

The commission is calling on the

Department of Justice to expand its

investigation capacity and continue

to litigate enforcement of incarcerat-

ed women’s civil rights in states that

violate them; it asks Congress to enact

stricter penalties for noncompliance

with the Prison Rape Elimination Act,

focused on inmate safety, and to con-

sistently appropriate funding sufcient

to ensure correctional agencies comply;

and it urges institutions to provide more

mental health treatment programs.

“We were aghast at the experiences

we learned about for so many women

who are incarcerated,” commission

chair Catherine Lhamon says. “Some

judges were incarcerating women as

a means of providing them access to

rehabilitation because they knew there

was no other way.”

First steps

Kevin Sharp, former chief judge of

the U.S. District Court for the Middle

District of Tennessee, found a way. He

recalls a young female addict who came

before him for sentencing as a rst-time

offender. Like many female defendants,

he says, she had been “forced to do the

dirty work” of picking up a shipment of

drugs for her boyfriend.

“No one wanted out of this way of

life more than she did,” says Sharp, who

gave her the lowest sentence possible.

Julie Abbate of Just

Detention International

says women are especially

at risk of abuse in prison.

Photo by David Fonda Photography

ABA JOURNAL | JUNE–JULY 2020

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