The female prison population in the US increased by over 800% between 1977 and the late 2000s. Approximately 500,000 women and girls are held worldwide, with a third incarcerated in the US. Women of color make up over half of the US female prison population.
The female prison population in the United States increased more than 800 percent between 1977 and the late 2000s, and in 2011, women were incarcerated at a rate eight times higher than in 1979. Worldwide, approximately 500,000 women and girls are held — about a third of whom are incarcerated in the United States. China, the Russian Federation, and Thailand have the next highest female inmate populations, accounting for about another third. Followed by India, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Further information on the inmates:
Ten times more women were sent to state prisons for drug offenses in the United States in 1996 than in 1986.
More than half of the US female prison population is made up of women of color, who are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than Caucasian women. Latinas are incarcerated at about four times the rate of Caucasian women.
The country with the highest proportion of female prisoners is Hong Kong, where in 2011, women made up about 22% of the prison population. In the United States, women made up about 8.5% of the prison population.
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