Billy Penn: 6 takeaways for Philly from a national conference about women behind bars
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Women in prison have it hard. Often harder than men. And as the number of incarcerated women has grown in Philadelphia, lessons learned from last week’s Women Unshackled conference in Washington, D.C. can provide insight into some of the issues within the prison system, as lawmakers and advocates continue to search for solutions.
Featuring national political voices like Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), the conference brought together more than 600 advocates, students, politicians and former inmates to focus on the challenges that incarcerated women face every day.
It wasn’t all Democrats on the agenda; Republican Congresspeople Mia Love (R-UT) and Doug Collins (R-GA) attended as well. As Rep. Collins remarked, these days it’s hard to get both sides of the aisle to agree on the color of the sky. But criminal justice reform has long been an issue in which Republicans and Democrats can find common ground, as fewer people behind bars means the government is spending less money to put and keep them there.
Many acknowledged, however, that their focus is often on men. More than 85 percent of those incarcerated in the U.S. are male, but over the past two decades, there’s been a 744 percent growth in female incarceration rate — almost double that of men, according to the executive director of the Justice Action Network, Holly Harris. One in five is pregnant or was pregnant at the time of arrest.