Statistics:

• Valley State Penitentiary for Women (VSPW) and the adjacent Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) together house almost 7,000 incarcerated women and is the largest women's prison complex in the world. (CDC, Amnesty International Report AMR 51/53/99, April 1999)

• The number of women incarcerated in the United States is TEN TIMES more than in Western Europe, whose female population is EQUAL to the United States.

• San Francisco has one of the highest recidivism rates in the state—some 78.3 percent go back to prison within three years of release—according to a report released today by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

With these statistics showing the alarming rates for the female prison population, it is paramount to understand how incarceration impacts these women’s lives long after release. Since about two-thirds of women commit nonviolent crimes and therefore will have to deal with reentry and transitioning out it is imperative that we as a society begin to understand the physical and emotional obstacles in this process. If our society favors incarcerating greater numbers of women, and building more prisons, then, we must be willing to consider what occurs inside prison and its lasting effects.