Confronting the Women’s Incarceration Crisis: Community Supervision and Incarceration

This is part of the “Confronting the Women’s Incarceration Crisis” series, where we examine what is driving more women into the system and explore ways to reverse the trend. Read the introduction and view other posts here.

Despite representing only about 10 percent of the total incarcerated population, the number of women in jail and prison has skyrocketed by 585 percent since 1980—a growth rate twice that of men. Today, over 190,000 women are incarcerated across the United States, and nearly a million more are on community supervision (e.g., probation or parole). Women’s incarceration differs markedly from men’s in that their offenses are typically less violent and more closely tied to underlying issues like poverty, trauma, and survival. Yet the system remains ill equipped to address their unique needs—especially those involving maternal health, physiological realities, and successful reintegration.

Why Intake and Assessment Matter

A woman’s journey through incarceration is profoundly shaped by the way in which she enters the carceral setting. Correctional institutions often lack gender-responsive intake practices, resulting in missed opportunities for trauma assessment, preventive health care, and early identification of mental health needs. Failure to ask about risks related to pregnancy, postpartum status, or preexisting health conditions can lead to life-threatening neglect. More than 58,000 pregnant women are incarcerated each year, with many giving birth behind bars under highly risky and stressful conditions. Those who have recently given birth may be denied essential postpartum care, suffer from separation trauma, and face increased risk of depression and adverse health outcomes for themselves and their infants.

Initial practices that fail to screen for substance use, past abuse, or parental status set a cycle of neglect and instability in motion, affecting not only the individual woman but her family and community as well. Women in custody who lack support at intake see their vulnerabilities magnified through the deprivation of needed feminine hygiene products, exposure to sexual abuse, or a lack of holistic mental health services.

Unique Challenges Women Face

The lived realities of incarcerated women include a host of physiological, psychological, and familial needs that remain unmet in most correctional environments. Among the most basic is “menstrual equity,” which includes access to feminine hygiene products. Despite national campaigns and limited state-level changes, many incarcerated women are forced to ration supplies, buy overpriced products from commissary, or improvise dangerous alternatives, which can lead to infections and humiliation.

Pregnant and postpartum women face even greater risks. Inadequate prenatal care, shackling during childbirth, forced separation from newborns, and the absence of mental health support result in heightened rates of miscarriage, preterm birth, and postpartum depression. Most prisons do not have specialized staff or facilities for maternal care, and many women are forced to return to general population within days of giving birth. These practices traumatize families, especially given that 80 percent of women in jails and almost 60 percent of women in prisons are mothers, with most of them functioning as primary caregivers prior to imprisonment.

Beyond maternal issues, the vast majority of women in prisons and jails have survived trauma and violence, with rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety far exceeding both incarcerated men and the general public. Substance use disorders affect up to 70 percent of incarcerated women, and suicide—often tied to coping with abuse and trauma—is the leading cause of death for female inmates.

Community supervision brings its own hazards. Nearly three-quarters of women under supervision are serving probation. Unfortunately, stringent requirements like check-ins, employment, housing, substance use treatment, and fines or fees make compliance harder for women—especially mothers navigating poverty or domestic violence histories—because they are often designed for men.

Commonsense Solutions

Promising strategies start with recognizing and addressing the realities that make women’s incarceration distinct from men’s. Some commonsense solutions include:

• Guaranteeing health and dignity. Ensure access to adequate medical care, reproductive services, and necessities like free feminine hygiene products. Several states, such as Arizona, California, Florida, and Missouri, now require free provision of feminine hygiene products in all carceral facilities.

• Training and engaging correctional and supervision staff in trauma-informed practices. Incorporate trauma screening at intake to identify needs early.

• Designing programs specifically for women. Address co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, strengthen family connections, and prepare women for meaningful employment.

• Improving community supervision. Reduce unnecessary reporting burdens, provide child-care and housing supports, and adapt probation and parole requirements to reflect women’s lived realities.  

• Using gender-responsive risk and intake tools. Employ assessments that capture the unique drivers of system involvement for women including trauma, relationships, and parenting responsibilities. Jurisdictions adopting gender-responsive risk assessments like the Female Additional Manual for violence risk and Minnesota’s gender-responsive trailer to the Level of Service Inventory-Revised have demonstrated improved predictive validity and better outcomes.

• Supporting mothers and children. Some facilities have initiated mothers and children’s units  that allow incarcerated mothers to remain with newborns, which reduces recidivism and improves child outcomes. Other improvements include shackling restrictions and expanded postpartum care.

Best Practices: Programs Making a Difference

Several evidence-based initiatives provide a roadmap for translating these principles into action:

• Moving On. A cognitive-behavioral intervention designed for justice-involved women. Reduces recidivism by targeting their unique thought patterns and behavioral drivers.

• Forever Free. A residential substance abuse program combining trauma support, addiction intervention, and employment skills training. Linked to lower recidivism and improved job stability.

• Healing Trauma. A peer-led program that helps women process past abuse, improve emotional regulation, and build resilience. Produces measurable reductions in PTSD and depression.

• Female Integrated Treatment Program. A Bureau of Prisons initiative. Uses a therapeutic community model to integrate substance use, mental health, trauma care, and vocational training into a holistic rehabilitation plan.

• Women in Recovery. A nationally recognized, intensive outpatient alternative for women facing long prison sentences. Provides rehabilitation, trauma counseling, parenting classes, and workforce training.

Conclusion

Women’s incarceration is a crisis rooted in a justice system still designed for men. Without changes, prisons, jails, and community supervision will continue to punish women for poverty, trauma, motherhood, and physiological realities beyond their control. By centering women’s needs; adopting trauma-informed, gender-responsive programming; and using intake and supervision tools tailored to women, the system can advance both individual recovery and public safety.

The path forward demands concrete action: easier access to hygiene products and quality healthcare, pregnancy and postpartum support in every facility, addiction and trauma treatment from day one, and supervision rules shaped for women’s realities. When women are set up to recover and thrive, entire communities benefit.