美国监狱女囚数量增长最快

据维拉司法研究所（Vera Institute of Justice）的最新报告显示，美国监狱女犯的增长速度超过了男性。

1970年至2014年期间，女犯人数从8,000人增加到了近110,000人，其中多数因低级别犯罪或轻罪，正在等待受审或被判处较短刑期，包括与毒品或缓刑有关的犯罪。报告指出，这些女犯中约80%为单身妈妈，64%为有色人种女性。

女犯人数的大幅增加，主要来自美国较小的偏远郡市。报告称：“曾经女性入狱的情况很少，但现在几乎每个郡都有女性被羁押——这与1970年形成鲜明对比，当时美国近四分之三的郡，监狱中没有一名女犯。”

报告称，被羁押的多数女性生活贫困，并且面临精神健康问题。报告还表示，82%的被羁押女性存在某种程度的酒瘾或毒瘾。

参与该报告的一位研究人员利兹·斯瓦沃拉告诉NPR：“这些社区依靠监禁来处理有精神和行为问题的人。”但报告称，多数女性出狱后的情况“比入狱前更糟糕”。

维拉研究所公布该项报告的目的是引发“有关如何控制美国监狱女犯人数增长的对话”。该研究所注意到，目前没有太多人研究或关注监狱女犯的数量或对女犯的处理方式。报告称，由于缺乏相关的研究，监狱不具备相应的条件，去解决女性在入狱之前和监禁期间所面临的挑战。

斯瓦沃拉告诉NPR：“我们必须考虑如何支持女性和帮助她们取得成功。现在的改革并没有考虑到女性。”（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

The number of women in jails is growing at a faster rate than that of men, according to a new report fromthe Vera Institute of Justice.

Between 1970 and 2014, the number of women in jailgrew from 8,000 to almost 110,000, with most of them awaiting trial or serving short sentences for low-level crimes or misdemeanors, including drug- or probation-related offenses. Nearly 80% of those women are single mothers and 64% are women of color, the report notes.

The spike in the number of women behind bars came primarily from smaller rural counties in the U.S. “Once a rarity, women are now held in jails in nearly every county—a stark contrast to 1970, when almost three-quarters of counties held not a single woman in jail,” the report says.

Most of the women in jails are poor and struggle withmental health issues, the report notes. And 82% have suffered from some kind of alcohol or drug dependence, the report says.

“In those communities, they rely on incarceration to deal with people with mental and behavioral challenges,” Liz Swavola, one of the researchers who worked on the report, told NPR. But, the report says, most of the women leave jail “far worse off than when they entered the jailhouse door.”

The Vera Institute conducted the report to spark “conversations about how to stop growing numbers of women cycling through U.S. jails,” noting that there’s little research or attention paid to the number or treatment of women in jail. Because of that lack of research, the report says, jails just aren’t equipped to handle the challenges women face before and during their stay.