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Women are the fastest growing group in the ever-expanding US prison population.
Sentencing laws have caused the number of women behind bars to explode,
leaving in the rubble displaced children and overburdened families. Current drug
laws punish not just those who sell drugs, but also a wide range of people who
help or associate with those who sell drugs. 

The length of a sentence usually depends on the quantity of drugs a person
possesses or distributes. Where a person is charged with conspiracy in a drug
crime, sentences often reflect the total amount of drugs possessed or sold by
everyone in the operation.  As a result, even when they have minimal, if any,
involvement in the drug trade, non-violent women with little or no prior criminal
history are increasingly captured in the ever widening net cast by the war on
drugs. They are often subjected to the same, or in some cases, harsher sentences
than the principals in the drug trade at whom the sentencing statutes were aimed. 
In too many cases, women are punished for the act of remaining with a boyfriend
or husband engaged in drug activity, who is typically the father of her children.
Many of these women have histories of physical and sexual abuse and/or
untreated mental illness.

Ill-informed policies spawned by the war on drugs adversely impact children. In
1999 almost 1.5 million minor children had an incarcerated parent, with over 65%
of women incarcerated in state prison having a minor child. The children are
often placed in the care of friends or family – often leading to financial and
emotional hardships – or end up in an overburdened child welfare system where
they are at increased risk of becoming victims of sexual or physical abuse or
neglect.

By Christina Rathbone – journalist and author, A World Apart; Women, Prison and Life Behind Bars