Overcriminalization significantly undermines human flourishing and social well-being by harming the family, social networks, and social citizenship. Additionally, it prevents capable men and women from utilizing their creative capacities in the marketplace. This creates vast issues involving relations with family while incarcerated and reintegration into society after release. On the economic side, draconian cash bail systems undermine justice through basing someone's ability to attain pre-trial release upon their wealth, not their actual threat to society.
“Siwatu-Salama Ra knows what injustice feels like. It’s cold, she'll tell you, and heartless. One year after going through labor while shackled to a bed, forced to give birth during her prison sentence, she can still vividly recall police officers passing time on their cellphones as she cried and screamed through unrelenting pain to push life through her body, with no family at her side.“
Detroit Free Press
October 24, 2019
Read More“More than 210,000 women spent Mother’s Day 2019 in America’s prisons and jails. Two-thirds of them are mothers of young children; an unknown number are pregnant. Many of them have substance use disorders with a significant history of trauma and mental health problems. Some have been incarcerated solely for the alleged crime of substance use during pregnancy, and many have lost custody of their children because there aren’t enough treatment centers for women and their kids.“
STAT
June 3, 2019
Read More“‘We are making a moral judgment of the mom,’ Skenazy said. ‘We think that we’re making a scientific and clear-eyed judgment of the danger, but actually we are always judging the mom’.“
The Appeal
May 30, 2019
Read More“New York opened the first prison nursery in 1901; today 11 states have them. Criteria for eligibility vary, but generally women convicted of child-related or violent crimes are ineligible, as are women with behavioural or mental-health problems, or with a record of disciplinary problems in prison. In Washington, women accepted into the programme must be pregnant at the time of their imprisonment, and have less than 30 months to serve from the time of delivery; mothers and children are released together. “
The Economist
May 20, 2019
Read More“Overall, incarceration rates are declining—just not for women. For them, things actually appear to be worsening across the country. This is particularly true in the smallest communities. According to our analysis, women’s jail admissions in rural areas increased 45 percent between 2000 and 2013, while in urban areas they were up 13 percent. By contrast, during the same period, men’s jail admissions in rural areas were down 1 percent and in cities they fell 24 percent. This shows that a deepening divide between high and rising rural incarceration rates and declining urban incarceration rates is heavily gendered.“
New York Review of Books
May 7, 2019
Read More“Men found incompetent to stand trial are housed at Fulton County Jail, where they are provided full-day programming, including counseling and group activities, according to the complaint. However, women must often wait months in isolation for a hospital bed to become available, according to Geraghty. Approximately 30 to 40 women are held in the jail’s mental health pods at any one time, she said in an email.“
The Appeal
April 19, 2019
Read More“Shaffer spoke to the Appeal from the Tulsa County jail, but she was transferred soon after to a state prison to serve out her 18-month sentence. Her crime? Permitting child abuse. Oklahoma, like many states, has a “failure to protect” law that allows the prosecution of a caregiver who ‘knows or reasonably should know that the child will be placed at risk of abuse’.“
The Appeal
December 18, 2018
Read More“Of the roughly 500 women now in city jails, many have significant unmet needs such as homelessness and substance use disorder. On average, women have fewer financial resources, which can result in an inability to pay bail. And because most jailed women are mothers, their incarceration can have sweeping consequences for families. “
The Appeal
December 6, 2018
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