WOMEN'S ISSUES

1. 138,000 women prisoners are in the U.S.--an increase of three times the number in 1985. (Amnesty International)

2. Nationally, women are the fastest growing women population. The number of women incarcerated has increased twelve times since 1980. (Women's Prison Association & Home, Inc.)

3. Female prison population in Missouri as of March 1997 is 1,532. This already exceeds projected populaton of 1,350 by the year 2000. (Mo. Dept. of Corrections)

4. Over 80% of female inmates have been convicted of nonviolent crimes.

5. The largest increase of women prisoners are African-American women who are jailed eight times more often than whites; and, Hispanic women are incarcerated at four times the rate as whites. (National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1999)

6. Of the 138,000 women prisoners in the U.S., 40% are serving time on drug violations. (Amnesty International)

7. Harsh sentencing for nonviolent, first-time drug offenders has exploded the population of women in prison by 432% between 1986 and 1991 and places more children at risk. (Amnesty International)

CHILDREN'S ISSUES

1. Almost 80% of the women incarcerated are mothers. These women have an average of two to three children. (Family and Corrections Network Report -- Issue 3)

2. At the time of arrest, approximately 75% of these women were the primary or sole caregivers with an average family income of less than $500 per month.

3. More than 2,000 women arrested in 1998 were pregnant. (Amnesty International)

4. 200,000 U.S. children have mothers in jail or prison. (Amnesty International)

5. 5,000,000 children's lives have been disrupted by the criminal justice system.

6. 60% of the women in state prisons never see their children during incarceration.

7. Among the effects of their mother's incarceration: anxiety, trauma, misplaced guilt and depression. (JusticeWorks, NY)

8. Nationally, 50% of juvenile delinquent children have a parent who is or has been incarcerated.

9. Children of offenders are six times more likely than peers to end up in prison. (National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 1993 report)

10. Criminologists estimate in the next decade half of all prisoners will come from families with at least one parent in prison. (National Council on Crime and Deliquency, 1993 report)

11. On any given day, more than 520,000 children are living in foster care and as many as 60% of children who outgrow the foster care system end up homeless.

ISSUES OF DRUGS AND RACE

1. African Americans comprise 12% of the national population and 13% of drug users; they make up 35% of those convicted for drug possession and 74% of those imprisoned for drug possession. (U.S. Sentencing Project)

2. Over 1/3 of Missouri prisoners are serving time for drug and alcohol convictions. 72% of these received no prior treatment.

3. 80% of defendants convicted of crack possession are African-American, more than half of all cocaine users are white. (U.S. Sentencing Commission, special report to Congress, 1997)

4. "There is as much cocaine in the Sears Tower or in the stock exchange as there is in the black community," Commander Charles Ramsey, supervisor of the Chicago Policy Departments narcotics division as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

5. Former drug czar, William Bennett, described the typical cocaine user as "white, male, a high school graduate employed full time and living in a small metropolitan area or suburb. (NCR, July 2, 1999)

6. Penalties for the use of crack are 20 times more severe than for the use of powder cocaine (FAMM -- Families Against Mandatory Minimums)

7. Federal minimum sentence for possession of more than 5 grams of crack (retail value between $225 and $750) is five years in prison. First-time offenders get the save 5-year penalty for dealing 500 grams of powder cocaine (averaging $32,500 to $50,000 retail.) (FAMM)

8. An estimated 3.9 million Americans, or one in fifty adults, was either currently or permanently disenfranchised (lost their right to vote) as a result of a felony conviction. Of these 1.4 million were African American males, representing 13% of all black men. (The Sentencing Project & Human Rights Watch, 1998)