According to Alabama’s Department of Corrections, there are currently 1,797 females incarcerated in the state. This number incorporates 865 who are housed in Wetumpka at the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women (JTP) as well as the 295 who are housed in a Birmingham work release facility.
In addition, 242 women are living at the Edwina Mitchell work release facility located on the campus of JTP. The other 395 inmates are incarcerated in county jails across the state awaiting space availability at JTP.
The total female prison population accounts for only 7 percent of the 25,600 inmates currently in Alabama’s penal system.
The racial mix profile of the female prison population is almost evenly divided. There are 805 white inmates and 991 black inmates.
Only one inmate is profiled under a different race category.
Repeat offenders
Out of the 1,797 inmates, 443 are listed as habitual offenders. (Persons are considered habitual offenders if they return to prison three or more times.)
Out of the 443 habitual offenders, 265 of them are black and 178 are white. The total number of habitual offenders in the state — both female and male — is 7,381.
According to Donna Davis, chaplain at JTP, there were 100 female prisoners in the state in 1972. “In 30 years that number has mushroomed to over 1,000,” she said.
Statistics provided by Aid for Inmate Mother (AIM) prison ministry reports the number of female inmates in the state increased by 58 percent during the last nine years. By the year 2005 the Alabama Department of Corrections predicts that the number of incarcerated women will increase by another 38 percent.
The majority of the 90,000 women imprisoned in the United States are there for committing economic crimes. Eighty percent of these women reported an income of less than $2,000 the year they were incarcerated.
Many inmates’ families exhibit a profile of high risk factors such as poverty, substance abuse and domestic violence.
Sixty to 70 percent of inmates had substance abuse problems when they were arrested.
More than 40 percent of them have experienced physical or sexual abuse. Twenty-five percent have been abused by their boyfriends or husbands.
One of the most tragic side effects for a female prisoner is the domino chain of horrors that occurs within her family unity.
Of all the women in Alabama prisons, more than 80 percent of them have children. Many of the inmates are single mothers. This translates to more than 2,000 children being separated from their mothers. These children face numerous difficulties — often undetected and long lasting — that occur during their mothers’ imprisonment.
AIM literature documents a 1993 study that reported “the incarceration of a child’s mother interferes with the child’s ability to master developmental tasks, adversely affects bonding and a sense of security, creates long lasting trauma and may encourage future incarceration.”
Snowball effect
The children of incarcerated women are five times more likely than their peers to become incarcerated.
The separation of children from their mothers creates a multitude of ongoing problems such as the loss of their primary caregiver, financial issues and the removal of emotional support.
In addition, these children carry the social stigma of having incarcerated mothers which can on occasion result in physical and emotional harassment from other children.
Perhaps one of the deepest scars is the ‘burden of shame’ the children carry that causes them to feel compelled to lie about their mothers’ whereabouts.
Another emotional issue — overlooked by the children’s caretaker — is the mourning and grief of losing their mothers as well as concern for the safety of their mothers.
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