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“When you imprison a woman, you imprison a family,” an adolescent woman in Sierra Leone explained to me, holding her tiny newborn in a moist detention space. These words resonates with a personal memory from my teenage years, hearing my mother weep after learning my father had been detained for political reasons in Zambia.

My experience has taught me how children become the secondary casualties of detention. During my career as a lawyer, I have seen that this is particularly accurate when women, who are frequently the main caretakers – are the ones taken away.

I have observed the destructive consequences of imprisonment on numerous female inmates and their children. Moreover, I have seen how their voices are ignored, even within spaces dedicated to women’s rights.

Unraveling the ‘Bad Girl’ Label

Communities commonly label women in prison as “troublemakers.” But what if this label is a falsehood? The vast majority of women behind bars are imprisoned for minor, non-violent infractions. Detailed analysis conducted over the recent couple of years reveals that in most cases, women are penalized due to poverty, mental health challenges, mistreatment or bias.

Half of all women in custody, compared to less than a third of men, struggle with a substance dependency in the time leading up to their arrest.

In a detention center in South Africa, a woman shared her arrest for shoplifting, an act of desperation to provide for her children. In Sierra Leone, numerous women were documented to be arrested for financial obligations. In Kenya, stories abound of women detained because of “street vending” – vending goods without a licence – simply to make ends meet.

Women from Mexico detailed how the global narcotics crackdown is causing a surge in the number of women incarcerated, particularly in Latin America and Asia. A significant number sell drugs due to poverty and force; while not key figures in the illegal drug market, they are easier to apprehend by police under pressure to show results.

Violence as a Consequence, Not a Cause

The minority of women who commit violent crimes are often survivors of violence themselves. Take the case of, 21-year-old Chisomo from Malawi, arrested for the murder of her previous boyfriend. He had attacked her and made death threats if she left. Chisomo eventually escaped after he made an attempt on her life. But, he eventually confronted her again, stabbing her. In a moment of survival, she took hold of the blade and retaliated.

I have worked alongside lawyers across the globe who advocate for legal processes to take into consideration a woman’s background of economic hardship and mistreatment. However, regardless of this advocacy, a judicial framework designed historically by and for men continues to disadvantage women through gender discrimination. Those who deviate from societal norms of the moral and motherly woman are often punished more harshly.

Correctional facilities are rarely secure environments for women. Vulnerable women enter incarceration and are released with deeper psychological wounds.

I have documented instances where women have endured abuse and where procedures like intrusive inspections and isolation create more damage to women with histories of sexual abuse or psychological issues. Imprisoned women’s rates of self-harm are often greater than those in prisons for men.

Even with international standards stipulating that prison should be a ultimate measure, notably for women carrying children and women with infants, heartbreaking accounts persist of women who lose their babies and of newborns who do not survive in custody.

The Hidden Sufferers – Children

Children – living within prison walls or in the community – are the unseen sufferers. Data shows there are at least 19,000 children incarcerated with their mothers, while a astonishing 1.4 million children have a mother in prison.

The cycle of trauma of parental imprisonment on children are well researched. I vividly recall trying to trace the children of a hopeless woman in Sierra Leone, who had no knowledge what had happened to them after her arrest. A neighbour had cared for them but the young daughter went to trade on the street to support herself and was lost forever.

A Global Blind Spot

A significant most aggravating realities is how the imprisonment of women remains a gap in awareness. Major conferences on female empowerment, where policy and funding priorities are set, persistently ignore this critical issue. As an example, there was no mention of incarcerated women in the political declaration at the UN Commission on the Status of Women this year.

Findings suggest that organisations dedicated to helping women behind bars are chronically under-resourced, even by contributors to human rights and women’s rights causes. Historically, stigma, a tendency to showcase only “palatable victims” and the marginalization of those who are not aligned with straightforward profiles has meant that marginalised women and their children are neglected, even with pledges to “include everyone.”

Foundations for a New Justice

However, alongside documenting hardship, one can find potential for change. Internationally, women are rethinking what a equitable system could be, from the interior and exterior of correctional facilities. In Colombia, advocates helped pass an innovative law allowing women to complete alternative punishments rather than face imprisonment in particular situations.

In Sierra Leone, feminist legal groups successfully challenged colonial-era loitering laws. In the UK, women’s centres offer a model of social assistance that is both more successful and cheaper than prison.

Recently, at the first convening of a global network of female ex-inmates, I wept hearing stories of women transforming deep suffering into something powerful, providing each other with solidarity and working together to reform the systems that govern their existence.

As the number of women in prison continues to grow at an worrisome pace – growing more rapidly than that of men – and we near the stark threshold of over a million women in prison worldwide, this serves as a urgent alarm.

Demanding Change and Investment

The year ahead offers significant chances for influence to correct this oversight – from global conferences to large-scale women’s rights gatherings.

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