The United States incarcerates more people than any other country. Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated in prisons and jails increased by 500%, with a total current population of 2.2 million. Women are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. Between the years 2000 and 2009, the number of women in U.S. prisons rose by 21.6%, while the number of men rose by 15.6%. The seven states with the highest incarceration rates are all in the south. Poverty, sexual violence, domestic violence, and substance abuse are only a few of the systemic problems associated with women's involvement in criminal activity. Two thirds of women are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses, and roughly 80% of women in prison are estimated to struggle with addiction. An estimated 85-90% of these women have experienced violence and abuse in their lives prior to coming to prison, such as child abuse, sexual violence, or domestic violence. Upon release these women are typically barred from assistance programs to help with housing and education, and most struggle to find work with a criminal record. About 75% of women who are incarcerated report having a child under the age of 18 at home, with an estimated 200,000 children whose mothers were incarcerated in the US.  The children, family members, and communities these women are removed from all bear the burden of incarceration. 

A new approach to criminal justice is needed, one based on public health and 

prevention: primary prevention, to shrink the system by changing drug laws and stopping mass arrests; secondary prevention, to reduce the harms of imprisonment by building education, job training, and humane treatment into our prisons; and tertiary prevention, restoring life and justice to those needlessly serving long sentences, who pose no threat to public safety and cost us billions annually."