The Sentencing Project reports one of every 15 women in prison (nearly 7,000) serving life or virtual life sentence
Via email I received this morning this fact sheet from The Sentencing Project titled "Women and Girls Serving Life Sentences" (which lead me to see that, a few weeks ago, it also release this related fact sheet titled "Incarcerated Women and Girls"). Here is the start of this latest publication:
Nationwide one of every 15 women in prison — nearly 7,000 women — is serving a life or virtual life sentence. One-third of them have no chance for parole, so their prospects for release are highly improbable. The number of women serving life sentences has grown dramatically despite declining rates of violent crime among women.
As is the case with imprisonment generally, men comprise the overwhelming proportion of people in prison for life; 97% of lifers are men. At the same time, the number of women serving life sentences is rising more quickly than it is for men. The Sentencing Project collected life-imprisonment figures by gender in 2008 and 2016. W e find that during this nine-year period the number of women serving life sentences increased by 20%, compared to a 15% increase for men.
The rise in life imprisonment among women has also been far more rapid than the overall prison population increase among women for violent offenses. Between 2008 and 2016 there was a 2% increase in the number of imprisoned women for a violent crime, but a 20% increase in the number of women serving a life sentence. When analysis is limited to life-without-parole sentences, we see that the number of women serving these sentences increased by 41% compared to 29% for men.
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