Why do policies matter?

The Gemma Project believes that to create sustainable systemic change that results in safer, healthier individuals and communities we must address the policies that impact and impede progress. The following examples result from flawed policies that directly contribute to the overrepresentation of women in the criminal legal system:

LOCAL ISSUE

• nearly 50% of all incarcerated women in the US are held in local jails

• jail and other local corrections costs have risen sixfold since 1977 with jail costs reaching $25 billion

• almost 2 in 5 dollars spent on state and local correctional institutions went to jails

• about 1 in 17 county dollars is spent on jails

• the portion of local budgets spent on jails does not correlate with state crime rates

• small jurisdictions spend more per capita on jails than most other jurisdictions, despite having lower crime rates

  POVERTY

• over 60% of women in jails have not been convicted and remain detained due to their inability to afford bail

• women have a median annual income level 30% lower than men’s making them significantly less likely to be able to afford money bail

• a typical bail amount is equivalent to a full year’s income for women, contributing to women remaining in jail awaiting hearings and sentencing at much higher rates than men

• once convicted, women are more likely to be given a jail sentence than men

• a study in California found that 75% of formerly incarcerated women had experienced homelessness at some point and 41% were currently homeless

• RACE AND IDENTITY

• white women born in 2001 have a 1 in 111 chance of imprisonment in the US

• latinx women born in 2001 have a 1 in 45 chance of imprisonment in the US

• Black women born in 2001 have a 1 in 18 chance of imprisonment in the US

• formerly incarcerated women of color have much higher rates of unemployment and homelessness, and are less likely than formerly incarcerated men to have completed a high school education, posing additional barriers to successful reentry

• LGBTQ people are overrepresented at every stage of the criminal justice system, starting with juvenile justice system involvement

  MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

• 80% of women in jails are mothers and often primary or sole caregivers to an average of 2.5 children

• a mother’s incarceration creates traumatizing and lasting effects on over 200,000 children in the US annually

• an estimated 58,000 people enter jail or prison pregnant each year

• roughly 34 % of children in foster care have an incarcerated parent, those rates jump to 43 % for Black youth

• since 2006, at least 32,000 parents had their children permanently taken from them without being accused of abuse

• of those, nearly 5,000 appear to have lost their parental rights because of their imprisonment alone

• relative to other children, Black children spend more time in foster care and are less likely to reunify with their families

• compared with white children, Black children are less likely to receive reunification services

• Black and American Indian or Alaska Native children are more likely than other children to be removed from their homes and to experience a termination of parental rights

  INTERGENERATIONAL CYCLE OF INCARCERATION

• more than 90% of foster children will come into contact with the juvenile legal system before leaving child welfare

• approximately 70% of youth who exit foster care as legal adults are arrested at least once by age 26

• close to one-fifth of the prison population in the US is comprised of former foster children

  PAST & PRESENT TRAUMA

• over 80% of incarcerated women have histories of domestic and/or intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and/or child abuse

• women’s drug use and associated criminal behaviors are more likely to transpire within interpersonal relationships and are strongly associated with the behavior of romantic partners

• 1 in 3 women experience the jail environment as more psychologically distressing than men

• women in jail are 30 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than women who are not incarcerated

• many incarcerated women have been diagnosed with or exhibit the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex trauma

• women make up approximately 10% of jail populations yet women made up 1/6 of all jail deaths

• suicide is the leading cause of jail deaths

How can The Gemma Project help?

The Gemma Project team assists jurisdictions to identify and change criminal legal system, health, child welfare, housing, employment, education, and civic engagement policies that disproportionately impact women and exacerbate the intergenerational cycle of incarceration. Either as part of the site replication process or as a separate service, here’s what we can do together in your community:

• We research and analyze State and local policies and practices that impact women and their families, and that hinder the success of women’s reentry to the community.

• We work in partnership with leadership to modify existing policies and to develop new policies that support effective gender-responsive reentry.

• We identify and help maximize resources and services within each community to effectively meet the unique reentry needs of women and focus on prevention of continued justice system involvement. 

• We leverage the strength of coalitions across the country to advocate for the development of alternatives to incarceration that allow families to remain together and reduce the reliance on incarceration. 

• We advocate for the change of policies that disproportionately impact women and contribute to the intergenerational cycle of incarceration across the nation.