What health issues do women tend to face when incarcerated and on their return to the community?
Since the early 1990s, the number of women held in state and federal prisons has increased more than six-fold.21 This produced an annual rate of increase for women that roughly doubled the rate for men in six of the first seven years of the new millennium.22 The increase in the number of incarcerated women behind bars, many of whom are mothers and the primary caregivers to their dependent children upon release, warrants greater attention to their health concerns. • Interviews with incarcerated women indicate a lack of regular gynecological and breast examinations is common.23 The gynecological needs of incarcerated women are critical to their health and should be considered during incarceration and post-release. • Nationwide, approximately half of women in state prisons and jails report having been physically and sexually abused in the past.24 This is consistent with research estimates for women generally: between 55 and 99 percent of women in substance abuse treatment (not necessarily
