The California Coalition of Women Prisoners have asked Sen. Richard Polanco, chair of the Joint Subcommittee on Prison Construction and Operations, to conduct an investigation, and to bring in a panel of doctors and specialists to review these women's medical files. They have also demanded that the MTA system be suspended and competent medical staff be brought in from the public health sector to save the women's lives. The number of women inmates has tripled since 1985. Forty percent of women in prison are there for non-violent drug charges or conspiracy charges related to someone else's drug activity. Black women are eight times more likely to be sent to prison than whites.
Hispanic women are four times as likely.
Two hundred thousand children are left motherless by this trend of incarcerating women. Many of these children are forced into the foster care system and are then often subjected to abuse. Women in prison are 10 times more likely to suffer sexual abuse and rape while incarcerated. Most often this abuse is perpetrated by male guards.