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Locked Up Means Locked Out: Women, Addiction And Incarceration, Vanessa Alleyne

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

In one of the quietest but most significant social phenomena of our time, national statistics indicate that the number of incarcerated women has quadrupled over the last 20 years. The status of women of color in America, already precarious, is further eroded under this new world order, as 54% of the incarcerated female population is African American or Latina. Harsh drug laws, mandatory sentencing, and policing strategies which focus on smaller crimes have succeeded in netting large numbers of mothers, grandmothers, single breadwinners and other women whose primary offenses prior to arrest were being poor and often having a substance …