There are pregnant women in prison?
Approx 4-6% of incarcerated women are pregnant on intake into the prison, comparable to the number of women pregnant in the general US population. This is true in Washington state as well as nationally.
There are now 180,000 women incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails.
75% of women in prisons are mothers. Two-thirds of these women have children under the age of 18 (U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics).
72% of women prisoners with children under 18 lived wit those children before entering prison (Child Welfare League of America).
What charges result in incarceration?
It is our experience that the pregnant population does not seem to differ from the general female prison population in the types of charges they have received.
Some women, upon discovering they are pregnant turn themselves in for past crimes.
The reasons for incarceration vary greatly, but like the general population, the majority are for drug-related charges.
57%of all federal inmates and 21% of state inmates are incarcerated for drug convictions.
Most women who use illegal drugs while pregnant are white, yet in several studies, the vast majority of women, either reported or arrested for drug use, are women of color. ( The Guttmacher Report, 1998)
Black women are incarcerated at a rate eight times that of white women. (The Sentencing Project)
51% of Black and Hispanic females are likely to go to prison or jail at least once during their lifetime, as compared to .5% of white females. (The Sentencing Project)
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