ABSTRACT
In a country where liberty is one of the founding ideals of our government, it is astonishing that we have had the highest incarceration rate in the world for over a decade (Tsai & Scommegna, 2012). In such a system, to deprive someone of their liberty is a very harsh sentence. Of course, it is necessary to incarcerate people to protect the public in some cases. It is hopeful to note that the number of prison admissions from 2009 to 2012 has been less than the number of releases, and therefore, the prison population in the United States has decreased every year from 2009 to 2012 (Carson & Golinelli, 2013). However, we are still number one in incarceration. This mass incarceration has created many problems for those incarcerated, their families and communities, and is not the best solution to the problems that cause people to be incarcerated, especially women. This chapter looks at the women incarcerated in the United States, past and present: who they are, why they are in prison, and the challenges they face during and after incarceration.
