What I Learned From The Website Womenandprison. Org Essay

For this Learning Activity Paper, I decided to write about what I learned from the website womenandprison.org. I will share what I learned about the gendered experiences of women in the criminal justice system, why the website argues that resistance to that system is necessary, and how you can be an ally to incarcerated women around the world. The number of women in prison has increased dramatically in the last few decades, yet women’s gendered experiences in the criminal justice system have been largely overlooked. Because of mandatory terms enacted since the 1970s, the U.S. prison system has experienced expansive population growth, increasing nearly five-fold (Schlesinger 2010). People who, in the past, would have been given probation or suspended sentences are now being incarcerated. These new policies are effecting women disproportionately. â€Å"Between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by more than 700%, more than double the rate of men (The Sentencing Project 2015)†. Nearly a quarter of these women are mentally ill and more than half haven’t finished high school (Kerness 2010). The majority of the increase in these new prison admissions are from non-violent drug related charges (Schlesinger 2010). Because women are generally the primary caretakers of the family, the incr easing incarceration rates among women has widespread effects. Without the woman at home, many families fall apart. Often when a woman is sent to prison then it means the end of