Drugs and crime over the last ten years have increased for women at about twice the rate of drug use in men. In 1999 a survey of inmates in state correctional facilities, the percentage of women in prison for a drug offense exceeded that of men. (2000, Bureau of Justice statistics) Drug usage is the grounds for many women going to prison. Drug use is on the rise among women. Seventy-five thousand women are serving prison sentences in the United States; most of them are in prison for drug law violations. (1999, Boyd) These violations include possession, manufacturing and/or the sale of illegal drugs. Women are more likely than men to have used heroin or cocaine in the month before the offense for which they are serving time are. An estimated 72% of the women in prisons had used drugs prior to incarceration. Daily use of these major drugs in that month was also higher among women than men. (1991, Bureau of Justice statistics) This fact might be because more women admit to their
             drug use than men do. Women were more likely than men to report having been under the influence of major drugs at the time they committed the crime, (1999, Tower) The ideas of women behind bars conjure up many images. We all have our own ideas on who these women are and what they look like. What are these women really like, what real life problems do they face? To fully understand the female prison population, statistics from the past decade is vital. In 1981 there were more than 1400 women held in federal facilities, by 1992 that number had increased to over 5100. Then in 1991 there were 47,691 women in state and federal institutions. (1991, Bureau of Justice statistics) Just ten years later the number has jumped an alarming growth of over seventy-five thousand. (2000, Bureau of Justice statistics) The typical female in prison is under thirty, African American, uneducated, unemployed or employed at a low skilled wage. More than 50% of these women in prison hav...