In Tennessee: 

-About 1,225 women are incarcerated: 789 at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville (TPFW), and 436 at the Mark Luttrell Reception Center (MLRC) in Memphis.*

-While women repesent only about 9% of the total prison population in TN, the rate of incarceration for females has increased 248% since 1994.*

-Average age of TPFW inmate is 36.  67% are white, 31% black, 2% other.*

-According to a 2008 TDOC survey, almost 21,500 children under 18 have an incarcerated parent, and grandparents are the most likely caregivers when mothers are in prison.  On average, kids must travel 300+ miles to visit their mother. (About half of incarcerated mothers in TN receive visits from their children.)

*TDOC website

 

Nationwide: 

-More than 70% of all women in state prisons are serving sentences for nonviolent offenses. Women account for approximately 14% of violent offenders nationwide.**

-67% of women in state prisons have at least one family member who has been incarcerated. (U.S. Department of Justice 1997 survey).

-About 65% of women in state prisons have young children, and an estimated 1.3 million minor children have mothers under supervision by the U.S. criminal justice system.**

-57% of female inmates report having been physically or sexually abused in the past.**

-Incarcerated women are twice as likely as women in the general population to have grown up in a single-parent household.**

**Bureau of Justice Statistics Report on Women Offenders 1999