Prisoners, Female (U.S.)

Historically, female prisoners have played a somewhat invisible role in the criminal justice system. During the 19th century in the United States, it was highly unlikely for a judge to sentence a woman to prison, unless she was a habitual offender. Prison was considered the end of the road. Until the 1870s, women were housed in the same facilities as men and were often imprisoned for public order offenses. Reform slowly occurred, and by 1873, the first female prison was established in Indiana. As new women's reformatories were built around the country, domestic values flourished. Women could decorate their rooms and learned feminine vocations. After World War II, values did not change, and female offenders were provided with traditionally feminine occupational and vocational trade skills. Though no new correctional model for women has been introduced since that time, in recent years more attention has been given to women in prison, primarily because the number of women being incarcerated continues to rise. In 1970, there were 5,600 female inmates in the United States, whereas in 2007, 105,500 women remained behind bars. From 1980 to 1994, the number of women in prison increased 386 percent, but when assessing the increase over three decades—from 1977 to 2007—the female prison population grew 832 percent. Still, female prisoners constitute a small portion of those behind bars.