Chapter 11
Women Prisoners
While far fewer women than men are in custody throughout the U.S., the proportion of prisoners that is female has risen through recent decades. This Chapter examines legal and policy considerations related to women in custody, including case law about equal access to programming, and reproductive issues such as shackling during labor.
Featured Opinions
- Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services, 583 F.3d 522 (8th Cir. 2009)
- Roe v. Crawford, 514 F.3d 789 (8th Cir. 2008)
- Southerland v. Thigpen, 784 F.2d 713 (5th Cir. 1986)
- Women Prisoners of D.C. Dept. of Corrections v. District of Columbia, 93 F. 3d 910 (D.C. Cir. 1996)
Featured, Cited, and Supplemental Litigation Documents
- Women Prisoners of D.C. Dept. of Corrections v. District of Columbia, 1:93-cv-02052-JLG (D.D.C.)
- Litigation summary and documents
- District court opinion, 877 F.Supp. 634 (D.D.C. Dec. 13, 1994)
- Additional opinion relating to remedy, 899 F.Supp. 659 (D.D.C. Aug. 14, 1995)
Statutes, Treaties, and Regulations
- UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (The Bangkok Rules), A/C.3/65/L.5 (2010)
Non-case Excerpts and Supplemental Documents
- Interview with Brenda V. Smith, Co-Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs in Women Prisoners of D.C. (2019)
- Elizabeth Chuck, Prison Nurseries Give Incarcerated Women a Chance to Raise Their Babies—Behind Bars, NBC News (Aug. 4, 2018)
- Michele Deitch & Colleagues, Advisory Committee to the Travis County (TX) Sheriff’s Office, Designing and Planning a New Women’s Jail Facility for Travis County: A Roadmap for Reform (Dec. 2018)
- Andrea James, Ending the Incarceration of Women and Girls, 128 Yale L.J. Forum 772 (2019)
Additional Reading
Other Cited Sources
General
- American Medical Association, An “Act to Prohibit the Shackling of Pregnant Prisoners” Model State Legislation (2015)
- Kerry Blakinger, Can We Build a Better Women’s Prison? Wash. Post Mag. (Oct. 28, 2019)
- John Caniglia, Growing Up Behind Bars: How 11 States Handle Prison Nurseries, Cleveland Plain Dealer (Mar. 4, 2018)
- Jessica A. Clarke, They, Them, and Theirs, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 894, 984 (2019)
- Rosemary Herbert, Women’s Prisons: An Equal Protection Evaluation, 94 Yale L.J. 1182, 1204 (1985)
- Note, The Sexual Segregation of American Prisons, 82 Yale L.J. 1229 (1973)
- Priscilla A. Ocen, Unshackling Intersectionality, 10 Du Bois Rev. 471 (2013)
- Priscilla A. Ocen, Punishing Pregnancy: Race, Incarceration and the Shackling of Pregnant Women, 100 Calif. L. Rev. 1239 (2012)
- Carolyn Sufrin et al., Pregnancy Outcomes in U.S. Prisons, 2016–2017, 109 Am. J. Pub. Health 799 (May 2019)
Statistics
- Jennifer Bronson & E. Ann Carson, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Prisoners in 2017 (Apr. 2019)
- Zhen Zeng, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Jail Inmates in 2017 (Apr. 2019)
- Wendy Sawyer, Prison Policy Initiative, The Gender Divide: Tracking Women’s State Prison Growth (Jan. 9, 2018)