Women Need Addiction Recovery Support Not Incarceration
these trends are startling, sickening, archaic - and what we can do about it
If you are a woman struggling with addiction in America today, especially a woman who is pregnant, odds are you will end up in jail or prison, not treatment.
You will lose custody of your children.
When you leave jail or prison, there will be a lack of available recovery support services, almost no resources that provide for children, and it will be near impossible to find recovery housing.
If you have one or more felonies on your record, you will find it difficult to find a job.
In many states, impossible.
No job, no money.
No money, no housing.
No housing, no options.
It keeps getting worse
According to recent research, there are startling trends emerging: women are disproportionately incarcerated instead of offered treatment for substance use disorder. While this isn’t the reality for every woman in the U.S., it is the reality for too many who get caught in a cycle of the punitive treatment of substance use disorder and their symptoms in this country.
According to the ACLU in Ohio, more women today are sent to prison for drug-related offenses than men.[i] Furthermore, the Prison Policy Initiative states that, “Only 4% of the world’s female population lives in the U.S., but the U.S. accounts for over 30% of the world’s incarcerated women”[ii] and includes the 27 most “carceral places for women” on earth. For example, while punitive measures are harsh for El Salvadorian women, who are still imprisoned for having miscarriages, El Salvador has the same incarceration rate as Wisconsin.[iii]
For women of color, rates of incarceration for drug-related offenses are even more staggering. Women of color, including black women, are two times as likely to be incarcerated than white women. Latinas are more than 20% more likely to be imprisoned.[iv]
According to the Drug Policy Alliance: “While men are more likely to be targeted by drug law enforcement, many of the drug war’s victims are women. Largely as a result of draconian drug laws, women are one of the fast-growing segments of the U.S. prison population.”
How can we reverse these trends? How can we support the health and well-being of American women and children and provide equitable healthcare for a treatable medical condition like addiction?
While the ACLU in Ohio states that more research is needed to fully understand these trends, as a recovery advocate and woman in addiction and mental health recovery, I’d like to suggest a couple of reasons based on research why the discrepancy exists between incarcerated men and women and offer several solutions for policymakers.
Why are women disproportionately affected?
First, women do not have the same type of access to diversion programs and other types of educational or vocational programs that are available to men.[v] While there have been positive strides forward in criminal justice reform, often these reforms focus on men. Women, specifically women of color, are not served equitably.
Similarly, trauma-informed approaches to diversion are almost non-existent, failing to take into consideration the reasons why many women turn to substance use in the first place. A startling report from the U.S. Department of Justice states that over 98% of incarcerated women have experienced trauma.[vi]
There is also a lack of available recovery support services like recovery housing for women, compared to men, along with women’s specific addiction and mental health treatment. This is catastrophic when research shows that over two-thirds of all women who are incarcerated meet the criteria for a substance use disorder.[vii] Furthermore, because more women are primary caregivers of children, not having access to addiction treatment that offers family support, childcare, and co-occurring treatment for children, prevents many women from seeking the care they need.
The Drug Policy Alliance states that “Women, and particularly women of color, are disproportionately affected by drug law enforcement, by social stigma, by laws that punish those unable or unwilling to inform on others, by regulations that bar people with a drug conviction from obtaining public assistance, and by a drug treatment system designed for men.”
Additionally, many states prioritize funding punitive measures and not support for women who are pregnant or post-partum. Many laws even target and penalize women who are pregnant. In Wisconsin, for example, civil detention can occur for pregnant women accused of substance use. Along with questionable legal proceeding practices, like a low standard of evidence and court-appointed attorney for the fetus (but not the mother carrying it), the law can require forced addiction treatment without any standards for quality of care.[viii]
What we can do to reverse these trends (the good news)
There are several ways that U.S. policymakers and criminal justice reform can work to reverse these trends for women.
(1) First, creating more diversion programs, educational opportunities, and vocational programs will increase the capacity of women to enhance their skills and remain caregivers, employees, and active community members.
(2) Second, states must focus on increasing the availability and access to women’s specific recovery support services like recovery housing, along with addiction and mental health treatment that offers childcare.
(3) Lastly, supporting an increase in community education and public health campaigns to decrease the stigma of addiction will encourage more women to seek the care they need.
While women in America today are struggling, there are real solutions that can curb the disparities in women’s access to addiction treatment and recovery support, instead of world-record imprisonment.