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
For an overview of the demographics of women incarcerated at MIC-Framingham, view MCI Framingham by the Numbers
The number of women housed at MCI-Framingham has been creeping up over the past year. As of September 1, 2022 there were 217 total females in the jurisdiction population: 174 criminally sentenced, 35 pre-trial detainees, and 8 civil commitments.
Since each county releases its own data according to its own system, we do not know a great deal about the population of women in Massachusetts jails overall.
Massachusetts releases data on the prison population at regular intervals. Readers can access the most recent numbers on DOC Quick Statistics page, DOC Weekly Inmate Count, DOC Institutional Fact Cards, and DOC Inmate Population Data Dashboard.
Age
The ages of women held at MCI-Framingham range from 19 to 77. The average age is 42. 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.
Aging in Prison Fact Sheet Dec 2022
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.
Health and Disability Challenges
Of the 135 women serving sentences at MCI-Framingham, 83% of women have open mental health cases, approximately 76% of women were diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and 69% of women were treated with psychiatric medication while in prison. While the Massachussetts DOC does not provide numbers for physical illness and disability, national data show that 49% of incarcerated women report at least one disability, and 67% report at least one chronic illness.
Sered and Norton-Hawk report higher numbers in their study of 47 women released from MCI-Framingham in 2007-2008. Of those women, 81% of the women reported at least one chronic illness (most commonly Hepatits C, asthma, back problems/arthritis, STDs and unresolved gynecological problems). 85% were diagnosed with mental health disorders. And 23% had been diagnosed with learning disabilities as children.
For one woman’s experiences see Suicide is Painful
Housing insecurity
Many women experience housing insecurity before and after incarceration
Massachusetts does not track housing status among incarcerated or previously incarcerated women. In Sered and Norton-Hawk’s study 32 of the 47 previously incarcerated women had experienced extended periods of homelessness. The need for safe and secure housing is a primary issue noted in virtually all research with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Homelessness makes women vulnerable to assault, abuse and disease. Many women end up going (back) into abusive relationships when they don’t have a place to live. Homelessness can result in loss of child custody. Lack of housing can prevent women from being released during the court process even when a judge is willing for her to be released, and lack of housing makes women more likely to be incarcerated due to probation or parole violations.
For one woman’s experiences with housing see: Housing Tribulations: Still Can’t Catch a Break
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.
Motherhood
Approximately 58% of women incarcerated at MCI-Framingham are mothers of minor children. Acknowledging the harms caused to children and families when mothers are locked up, Massachusetts passed the Primary Caretakers Act in 2018. While there are no official data on the number of women who have been allowed to remain at home under the Act’s provisions, anecdotal reports from attorneys, social workers and advocacy organizations indicate that the number is very low
Read about one woman’s experiences here: Eulogy for Kahtia
WIP member Rebecca Stone was invited to speak at the Rhode Island State House on September 26, 2023, to present information for a bicameral study commission on women and incarceration.
Click here to see her presentation slides featuring information from WIP’s research reports.
