Nowadays, there is a new social perception of American society related to the presence of women in the criminal justice area. The number of women that become investigators, police officers, prosecutors, lawyers, judges has changed considerably over the last decades. Women’s presence in the justice field has been continually increasing since the arrival of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Lengthwise, the number of women criminals has increased as well. This change increases the need of addressing problems faced by families and children of the incarcerated female population.
There are 1,500,000 children that have at least one parent in prison, across the country. Women offenders are usually the primary caretakers of young children. The impact of incarceration on women offenders and their families is, on average, dramatically different from the impact of incarceration of men offenders. The article “Why FOCUS on Women Offenders?” by Judge Patricia M. Wald (2001) published in the Criminal Justice Magazine elucidated critical issues related to incarcerated women in America. A few of the important facts mentioned by Justice Wald are that, “Approximately 80 percent of federal women offenders have no prior record, and very few of them are convicted of violent crimes.”, and, “Women offenders are far more likely to have been the principal caretakers of young children at the time of arrest than male offenders.” Consequently, it is possible to deduce that the women presence in prison is less predictable than the presence of their male counterparts, and they are, unlike the men, much more committed with their children’s welfare.
Based on the provided data, it is possible to infer that when women are prosecuted and condemned, the dilemma related to the care of their families and children care surfaces. In the absence of a competent caretaker for the children, this