The number of women in prison around the world has grown rapidly over the past two decades, jumping 60% while the male prison population grew by 22%.
The rise has been particularly marked in countries in Latin America and Asia – including Brazil, where the number of female prisoners rose from 10,112 to 42,694 from 2000 to 2022, Indonesia and Cambodia.
More than 740,000 women are now behind bars, representing just under 7% of the world’s prison population, according to a recent report by Penal Reform International.
The organization notes that the faster increase in the female prison population is explained in several countries by the application of restrictive anti-drug policies.
The director of Penal Reform International, Olivia Rope, said in an interview Monday that women are proportionally more affected than men by repressive efforts in this sector. The fact that they occupy secondary roles in the trafficking orchestrated by criminal organizations means that they are often easier targets for the authorities than the real perpetrators.
The relative lack of education or financial means of the targeted women complicates access to a lawyer and increases the risk of detention, particularly during the pre-trial phase.
Poverty, grade Mme Rope, is another important factor, since a substantial number of inmates are serving time for minor offenses like shoplifting.
A study of a Mexican prison established in particular that 10% of women had committed an offense of this nature and found themselves behind bars because they could not pay the fines set by the court.
Domestic violence
According to Advocaid, an organization that supports women struggling with justice in West Africa, the percentage of female defendants being charged with violent crimes is low. In these cases, domestic violence is often an underlying factor. A young woman from Sierra Leone was sentenced to death in 2010 after stabbing her husband while he hit her with a plastic pipe.
The responsible judge indicated, in giving his instructions to the jurors, that the use of a bladed weapon in such a context was “disproportionate”, without dwelling on the fact that the accused had been subjected to repeated attacks for a long time.
The episode illustrates that the courts “were created by men for men” and do not always sufficiently take into account the trauma that can result from years of abuse, notes Sabrina Mahtani, a veteran lawyer who works with of women in legal trouble.
PHOTO JESUS VARGAS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Inmates wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at a prison in Los Teques, Venezuela, in July 2021.
Some countries have undertaken significant reforms in recent years to reduce the number of women in detention. Colombia notably approved a law this year that could allow thousands of female prisoners serving sentences of less than eight years to do community work instead.
According to Penal Reform International, Hawaii has also succeeded in reducing the number of girls and women aged 15 to 24 in its prison system to zero by focusing on community rehabilitation.
A decried lack of financial support
Dozens of detainees, ex-detainees, activists and lawyers concerned about the problem of the incarceration of women published an open letter a few days ago criticizing the lack of financial support granted to NGOs active in this sector by public and private donors.
The signatories also deplore the neglect of the issue at international summits aimed at promoting gender equality.
“People are frankly fed up with the situation,” notes Mme Rope, who is pleased to see that more and more women who have been sentenced to prison are now speaking up to seek to make a difference.
Women Beyond Walls, a collective formed a few years ago to end the “over-criminalization” of women, produced a survey at the end of 2021 indicating that the majority of organizations active on this subject are underfunded and regularly face to hostile reactions from the population.
Several respondents indicated that the “negative public perception” of female prisoners made institutional donors reluctant and made it difficult to obtain financial support from individuals or companies.