Since Women for Human Rights and Dignity started in 1980, the national women's prison population has grown exponentially, increasing by over 500 percent by 1999. Draconian criminal justice policies largely are responsible for this accelerated and intensified growth. For example, mandatory sentencing forces judges to issue harsh sentences, particularly in drug-related cases, without regard for otherwise mitigating circumstances, such as first offenses or single motherhood. This policy has been especially harmful to African American and Latina women, who constitute 67 percent of federal and 64 percent of state inmate populations. Sentencing disparities are an equally inequitable derivative of mandatory sentencing which requires increased sentences for crack cocaine violations, while offering flexible alternatives in cases arising from powder cocaine arrests.
Powder cocaine is used by predominantly white middle-class or suburban defendants.
More than 71 percent of women in federal prison and 35 percent of female state inmates have been convicted of drug offenses, usually involving crack cocaine, which carries mandatory sentences as long as 25 years for first time offenders. Moreover, large numbers of women of color convicted of crack offenses have been charged because of relationships with boyfriends, husbands or other significant males who themselves are statistically more vulnerable to police apprehension and racial profiling. Two cases exemplify the numerous other instances of young African American women doing hard time for minor drug involvement. Kimba Smith, a first time offender in Virginia, was unable to bargain with prosecutors because she could offer no information about the drug dealer with whom she was romantically involved. Many believe she was convicted not because of the scant evidence but because she had no information to offer against her live-in male companion.