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Massachusetts currently has the lowest rate of female incarceration in the United States. While that is cause for optimism, it continues to be the case that the majority of women drawn into jails and prisons in Massachusetts struggle with physical and mental health challenges, experience housing insecurity, have been targets of assault and abuse as children and as adults, and serve short sentences on charges related directly or indirectly to substance use. With a small number of exceptions, most of these women spend more of their lives in treatment programs, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, halfway houses, reentry programs and other therapeutic and welfare institutions than in jails and prisons. For more see: Can’t Catch a Break
Data and resources regarding the demographics and circumstances of criminalized, incarcerated, and marginalized women in Massachusetts
Age: More than 50% of women serving a mandatory minimum sentence at MCI-Framingham are over 50 years of age.
Many of these women are disabled or chronically ill. Research shows that older women are highly unlikely to be arrested or convicted of crime.
Motherhood
Race: The majority of women incarcerated in Massachusetts are white. This reflects the large white majority in the state. However, Black women are disproportionately incarcerated; that is, being Black is a “risk factor” for incarceration in Massachusetts.
Mental and physical health challenges
Housing insecurity: Many women experience housing insecurity before and after incarceration
The need for safe and secure housing is a primary issue noted in virtually all research with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Many women end up going to shelters or back into abusive relationships when they don’t have a place to live, and lack of housing can prevent women from being released during the court process, even when a judge is willing for her to be released. It is crucial for state agencies to reduce barriers (such as excluding individuals with CORIs) that prevent many women from obtaining housing and other services. For our work on this issue in relationship to the current situation at “Mass and Cass” in Boston read here: A Better Way Forward for the Women at Mass. & Cass.
Websites with useful data and policy analysis regarding women and incarceration in Massachusetts
Women in Prison: Seeking Justice Behind Bars (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights)
Incarcerated Women and Girls (The Sentencing Project)
Redefining the Narrative (Women’s Justice Institute)
Prison Policy Institute: Research Library
Research and Insights (Susan Sered’s blog)