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ACLU says there are too many women in New York prisons
Dec 16, 2015 12:02 am
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Nia Hamm at New York News Connection reports for Public News Service that women are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population with their numbers rising steadily for three decades. The American Civil Liberties Union attributes the trend partly to the war on drugs and incarceration of nonviolent offenders, which describes more than 80 percent of the female prison population in New York. Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel with the ACLU's National Prison Project (NPP), says poor mental health can be a pathway to prison, and many women end up in jail because they lack mental health resources. Fettig says these trends have been detrimental to the communities and children of these women, both in the state and nationally. "They tend to do worse in school," she states. "They have behavioral problems, and research is making connections between parental incarceration and the subsequent incarceration of children. "Taking the primary caretaker away from a child at a critical point in their development has negative outcomes both for the child and the family, but also for the community at large." More than 40 percent of women in New York prisons reported having a serious mental illness in 2007 research. Fettig says it isn't only women of color who are affected by the criminal justice system. More white women also are being sentenced, in part because of the methamphetamine and opioid epidemics. The majority of women in state prisons are mentally ill, according to the Justice Department, and many have experienced physical or sexual trauma. Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, says a new model is needed to address dysfunctional behavior in society, particularly in communities of color. "A disproportionate number of black and Latino women who are incarcerated in New York state, we find that similarly across most of the country," she explains. "And the communities from which they come, the services they provide - as far as being caretakers as far as being economic pillars - all of that is diminished." The advocacy group The Sentencing Project says the number of women in prison has risen at nearly double the rate of men since 1985. Currently, more than 1 million are under some type of supervision by the criminal justice system.
Nia Hamm at New York News Connection reports for Public News Service that women are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population with their numbers rising steadily for three decades. The American Civil Liberties Union attributes the trend partly to the war on drugs and incarceration of nonviolent offenders, which describes more than 80 percent of the female prison population in New York. Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel with the ACLU's National Prison Project (NPP), says poor mental health can be a pathway to prison, and many women end up in jail because they lack mental health resources. Fettig says these trends have been detrimental to the communities and children of these women, both in the state and nationally. "They tend to do worse in school," she states. "They have behavioral problems, and research is making connections between parental incarceration and the subsequent incarceration of children. "Taking the primary caretaker away from a child at a critical point in their development has negative outcomes both for the child and the family, but also for the community at large." More than 40 percent of women in New York prisons reported having a serious mental illness in 2007 research. Fettig says it isn't only women of color who are affected by the criminal justice system. More white women also are being sentenced, in part because of the methamphetamine and opioid epidemics. The majority of women in state prisons are mentally ill, according to the Justice Department, and many have experienced physical or sexual trauma. Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, says a new model is needed to address dysfunctional behavior in society, particularly in communities of color. "A disproportionate number of black and Latino women who are incarcerated in New York state, we find that similarly across most of the country," she explains. "And the communities from which they come, the services they provide - as far as being caretakers as far as being economic pillars - all of that is diminished." The advocacy group The Sentencing Project says the number of women in prison has risen at nearly double the rate of men since 1985. Currently, more than 1 million are under some type of supervision by the criminal justice system.