At midyear in 1999, at least 149,200 women were behind bars - an incarceration rate of 106 per 100,000 population.
Women are the fastest growing and least violent segment of prison and jail populations.
About 1 in 359 children have an incarcerated mother - for a total of 194,504 children with their mothers behind bars. Sixty-nine percent of women reporting an assault said that it had occurred before age 18. African American women accounted for over 50 percent of all injection-related AIDS cases among women in 1997, although they made up only 12 percent of the female population. Similarly, Latina women accounted for almost 25 percent of all injection-related AIDS cases among women in 1997, although they made up only 10 percent of the female population.