Women in prison for homicide were almost twice as likely to have killed an intimate (husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend) as a relative like a parent or sibling (32% versus 17%). Women in prison were more likely than the men to have had at least one member of their immediate family who had been incarcerated: 47% of female inmates and 37% of male inmates.

Criminal histories

Nearly half of all women in prison were currently serving a sentence for a nonviolent offense and had been convicted in the past for only nonviolent offenses. The number of women in prison has increased 138% in the last ten years. The recent growth in the number of women in prison has been accompanied by changes in two other measures: the rate of arrest of women for selected serious crimes and the rate of incarceration of women convicted of selected serious offenses per 1,000 arrests of women for such offenses. Research on women in prison has reveled that women's criminality must be understood in terms of the context of women's lives (Pollock, 2002; Belknap, 2001; Chensey-Lind, 1997). The loss of self-esteem and identity of women in prison is associated closely with loss of contact with children and family. Around 55% of women in prison have a child under 16, 33% a child under 5 and 20% are lone parents.

Mental Health Issues

Nearly 1 in every 6 women had received medication prescribed by a psychiatrist or other doctor for an emotional or mental problem since admission to prison. The findings do show that women in prison need frequent visitations from family and friends to maintain positive mental health. Half are taking some form of medication for mental health problems. Women’s health care needs such as ante-natal care are often overlooked, as are their different needs in drug-addiction and mental health.

Community Help

The real tragedy here is that their mothers represented no threat to the community, as is often the case with women who enter detention or sentenced custody. Every woman who is known to be pregnant will be consistently medically assessed and monitored, just as in the community. In response, women prisoners use self-and community advocacy to meet their health care needs and cope with these challenges. Although this conclusion is consistent with the rehabilitation goals of incarceration, it also suggests that some women may have been able to avoid prison if treatment had been provided in the community, especially for substance-related problems.