March 19, 2018
Prison reform advocates say too many of the 12-thousand women in Texas prisons don’t need to be there.
A study by the non-partisan Texas Criminal Justice Coalition finds that more than two-thirds of the state’s female inmates were convicted of nonviolent offenses and recommends that lawmakers develop alternative policies that emphasize more pretrial diversion and probation opportunities for women in the criminal justice system.
Lindsey Linder with the Coalition says the study finds that women in prison often have faced a different set of life experiences than men.
She says that while the overall prison population has been shrinking, the number of incarcerated women has grown rapidly in recent years. Linder says the state and local communities need to address domestic violence and poverty among women, particularly those with custody of children.
She says the report also recommends community-based treatment programs for trauma and substance abuse and reforms to the state’s bail system which often keeps women in poverty.
She adds recent Texas prison reforms have been aimed mostly at male inmates.
The report was developed with statistics from the state prison system and a survey of 400 women in Texas prisons.
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