• Women are the fastest-growing segment of prison and jail populations. According to the study "Caught in the Net" by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than eight times as many women were in state and federal prisons and local jails in 2003 than in 1980.
• 44 percent of the incarcerated women in a 1999 U.S. Department of Justice study had been physically or sexually assaulted. In 69 percent of the women, the assaults had occurred before age 18.
• Since the 1986 enactment of mandatory sentencing for drug-related crimes, the U.S. has seen a tenfold increase in the number of women incarcerated for such crimes.
• According to the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole, nearly 2,300 inmates are in the Shelby County Jail; 418 women are at the Luttrell Correctional Center.
• In Tennessee, more than 9,000 people are on parole and nearly 43,000 are on probation.
• 81 percent of female inmates supervised by the Tennessee Department of Corrections are mothers of minor children.
