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Statement Of Betsy Ginsberg, Clinical Associate Professor Of Law & Director, Civil Rights Clinic, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law U.S. Commission On Civil Rights Public Briefing: Women In Prison: Seeking Justice Behind Bars, Betsy Ginsberg

Testimony

Although men make up a significant majority of the country’s prison population, the United States has the highest rate of incarceration of women in the world.1 In recent years, women have been the fastest growing segment of our population in jails and prisons. The significant but insufficient decline we have seen with respect to the overall prison population eclipses or obscures the trend we have seen in the imprisonment of women. While the trends vary from state to state, the overall picture for women has been far worse than for men. In most states the women’s population has either grown, …