Who's helping the 1.9 million women released from prisons and jails each year?

Prison Policy Initiative updates for July 24, 2019 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare

Who's helping the 1.9 million women released from prisons and jails each year? [[link removed]] Approximately 1 in 8 people released from state prisons, and more than 1 in 6 people released from jail, are women. But the programs proven to help them are far from adequately funded. [[link removed]]

by Wendy Sawyer [[link removed]]

Given the dramatic growth of women’s incarceration in recent years, it’s concerning how little attention and how few resources have been directed to meeting the reentry needs of justice-involved women. After all, we know that women have different pathways to incarceration [[link removed]] than men, and distinct needs [[link removed]], including the treatment of past trauma and substance use disorders, and more broadly, escaping poverty and meeting the needs of their children and families.

In recognition of these differences, and in an effort to reduce the harms of incarceration and the likelihood of re-incarceration, many prison systems have begun to implement gender-responsive policies and programs. But what's being done to help women get the support they need to rebuild their lives after release?

A handful of programs have sprung up in communities around the country to meet the needs of women returning home: some founded by formerly incarcerated women themselves, some running on shoestring budgets for years, and all underscoring the need for greater capacity [[link removed]] to meet the demand of over 81,000 releases from prison and 1.8 million releases from jail each year.

To see the number of annual releases of women by state from both prisons and jails, view the full version of this article on our website. [[link removed]]

In 2016, about 81,000 women were released from state prisons nationwide, and women and girls accounted for at least 1.8 million releases from local jails in 2013 (the last year all jails were surveyed).

While many people are released from jail within a day or so and may not need reentry support, jail releases can’t be overlooked, especially for women, who are more likely than men to be incarcerated in jails [[link removed]] as opposed to prisons. (Moreover, jails typically provide fewer programs and services than prisons, so individuals released from jails are even less likely [[link removed]] to have received necessary treatment or services while incarcerated than those in prison.)

Those figures mean that nationally, about 1 in 8 (13%) of all individuals released from state prisons – and more than 1 in 6 (18%) jail releases – are women. In 20 states, at least 1 in 5 (20%) individuals released from any incarceration (either prison or jail) is female. Fully half of all states release at least 1,000 women from prison annually; in Texas, it’s over 12,000 women per year.

As in other stages of the criminal justice system, most post-release policies and programs were created with the much larger male population in mind. But research makes clear that women returning home have “ a significantly higher need for services [[link removed]] than men,” and that reentry supports should be responsive to the particular needs of justice-involved women:

Economic marginalization and poverty: As we’ve previously shown, formerly incarcerated women (especially women of color) have much higher rates of unemployment [[link removed]] and homelessness [[link removed]], and are less likely to have a high school education [[link removed]], compared to formerly incarcerated men. These findings help explain why, in a 2012 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study [[link removed]], 79% of women interviewed 30 days pre-release cited “employment, education, and life skills services” as their greatest area of need (followed closely by transition services). An earlier study (Holtfreder et al., 2004), found that poverty is the strongest predictor of recidivism [[link removed]] among women, and “providing state‐sponsored support to address short‐term needs (e.g., housing) reduces the odds of recidivism by 83%” for poor women on probation and parole. Housing: A 2017 Prisoner Reentry Institute (PRI) report [[link removed]] identified homelessness and the lack of stable housing as the biggest problem facing women in the New York City justice system, noting that 80% of women at Rikers said they needed assistance finding housing upon discharge. A 2006 California study [[link removed] Bars.pdf#page=52] found that 75% of formerly incarcerated women surveyed had experienced homelessness as some point, and 41% were currently homeless. Women who can’t secure safe housing may return to abusive partners or family situations for housing and financial reasons – a point echoed in interviews with paroled women in a study by Brown and Bloom [[link removed]]. Trauma and gendered pathways to incarceration: The PRI report emphasizes the importance of gender-responsive and trauma-informed [[link removed]] interventions for reducing recidivism among women. According to that report, such interventions should: provide a safe, respectful environment; promote healthy relationships; address substance use, trauma, and mental health issues; provide women with opportunities to improve their socioeconomic conditions; establish “comprehensive and collaborative” community services; and prioritize women’s empowerment. Family reunification: Most incarcerated women are mothers, and are frequently the primary caretakers of their children. The importance of family reunification – noted throughout the literature, by Carter et al. [[link removed] Bars.pdf#page=41] (2006), Brown and Bloom [[link removed]] (2009), Wright, et al. [[link removed]] (2012), the NIJ [[link removed]] (2012), among others – cannot be overstated, especially given the trauma experienced by children [[link removed]] when separated from a parent.

While the complexity of women’s reentry needs can be daunting, there are successful models in operation demonstrating how states, counties, and communities can best serve them.

Notably, A New Way of Life Reentry Project [[link removed]] operates eight houses in Los Angeles and is working toward expanding its model nationally. The program offers wraparound services including transitional housing, case management, and legal services to support women as they navigate reentry. Staff support women from initial reentry tasks like obtaining ID cards and applying for public assistance all the way through the process of regaining custody of children and finding permanent housing.

Similar programs offering wraparound services exist in other cities, such as the Ladies of Hope Ministry [[link removed]]’s Hope House in New York City; the Center for Women in Transition [[link removed]] in St. Louis; and Angela House [[link removed]] in Houston, which also provides programming tailored “to the health and psychosocial needs of women recovering from sexual exploitation.”

Frustratingly, despite their success, these programs lack the funding and capacity to serve all of the women who desperately need them: Angela House notes on its website that it can only serve 12 to 14 women at a time, but receives more than 300 applications every year.

Unless state governments and federal agencies take action to grow the capacity of these service providers, hundreds of thousands of women every year will leave prison or jail without the resources they need to succeed. As lawmakers increasingly call for policy changes to help women in prison, they must not ignore the massive gap between the need and availability of women’s reentry programs.

A detailed spreadsheet [[link removed]] including release data for both men and women is available on our Data Toolbox [[link removed]] page.

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: Women make up a growing share of arrests and report more police use of force [[link removed]]

We analyze gender and racial disparities in traffic and street stops, including arrests, searches, and use of force during stops. Our most alarming finding: The number of women experiencing police use of force has risen a staggering 353% since 1999.

Read our data analysis. [[link removed]]

Women behind bars have the lowest pre-incarceration incomes [[link removed]]

We previously found that women in prison have an average pre-incarceration income of $13,890, and women in jail pretrial have an even lower average income of $11,071. For more on the poverty of women behind bars, see our reports Prisons of Poverty [[link removed]] and Detaining the Poor. [[link removed]]

Please support our work [[link removed]]

Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives) [[link removed]]

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