League of Women Voters of Delaware

 The Incarcerated Woman in Delaware

Fact Sheet

Women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal correctional authorities, year end 1995, 2002, and 2003

                                                                                                                   1                                           2
Region/Jurisdiction                       Number of Female          Percentage Change          Incarceration Rate
                                                   Inmates, 2003              ’02 to ’03     ’95 to 03                2003

        1         The average annual percentage increase from 1995 to 2003.
        2         The number of female prisoners with sentences of more than 1 year per 100,000 female U. S. residents. 

The United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate

Delaware has one of the highest incarceration rates of any of the 50 states and is even higher than the average incarceration rate of the United States.

Incarceration rates per 100,000 Population:
Delaware-811
United States of America- 702
Russia – 628
South Africa- 400
All other countries less than 139

Between 1980 and 2000, the number of adjudicated violent crimes and crimes against property did not increase but the adjudicated public order crimes doubled and the drug abuse crimes quadrupled!
(Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2003) 

Who is the Incarcerated Delaware Woman? 

1). She is incarcerated on drug use related charges  

“The collective portrait of prisoners is very telling. Three-quarters have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, one-sixth a history of mental illness, and more than half the women inmates a history of sexual or physical abuse. Most prisoners are from poor or working-class communities and two-thirds are racial and ethnic minorities.” Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment, edited by Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind, 2002. 

Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, January 1999.

More than 83.0 % of state prison inmates report use of illegal drugs
·         62.4% of female state prison inmates used a drug in the month prior to the offense
·         40.4% were using illegal drugs at the time of the offense. 

      2). She is more likely than a woman who is not incarcerated to:

  Have a major mental illness  (50% vs. 20%) 

  Have a serious chronic illness.

This is estimated to be at least one serious chronic illness in 60 % of the age controlled population compared to 18 % of the non incarcerated. Health Profile of the State Prison Population and Returning Offenders: Public Health Challenges. Davis and Pacchiana. Journal of Correctional Health Care, Vol. 10, Issue 3, 2003 

20% had a physical limitation such as a hearing loss, mobility impairment, or chronic health problem that reduced their capacity to work. (Compare this to 8% of the age adjusted non-incarcerated peers with a serious limitation.)

                                           Have a history of sexual or physical abuses. (71% vs. 30%)

 Be black or an ethnic minority.

The incarceration rate for Delaware is one out of 123 citizens is incarcerated with a total rate of 811 incarcerated per 100,000 population. However if this rate is broken down by race-

                                                Delaware has an incarceration rate per 100,000 population of-

                                                            811 per total population
                                                            5072 per total population of black males
                                                             716 per total population of white males
                                                             352 per total population of black females
                                                              69 per total population of white females

Department of Corrections Demographics for June 30, 2000 Snapshot Population. Delaware Statistical Analysis Center, January 2003. 

                                         Be poor and living in the lower socio-economic level.

Inmates incarcerated for more than 30 days lose federal disability and Medicaid benefits this is especially devastating for the mentally ill or chronically ill. Mentally ill inmates who are released to the streets without access to care are much more likely to return to prison. Physical Health of Women in Prison, Eliason, Taylor, Williams. Journal of Correctional Health Care. Vol. 10, Issue 2. 2003. 

Have minor children who are five times more likely than their peers to be eventually incarcerated.

According to the Oregon DOC, more than two-thirds of female inmates have minor children and these children are five times more likely to be incarcerated than their peers. In 2002, Oregon’s DOC joined community groups to form the Children of Incarcerated Parents Project which intervenes to keep kids out of the system and proactively treats “the family disease of incarceration.” Correct Care Vol. 18, Issue 2. Spring 2004 

8 to 24 women incarcerated in Delaware per year give birth while serving their sentence. Thus far all the babies are given to family members or are placed in foster care immediately after birth until the birth mother is released from prison.                                   

 William DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, credits this disturbing trend to sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences. “The impact of these trends cannot be ignored,” writes DiMascio. “When men go to prison, families are disrupted and children lose role models. When women go to prison, families are destroyed and children’s lives are devastated.” [source].