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Printer-friendly
D.C. Report
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District
of Columbia
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IMPRISONMENT
AT A GLANCE
Imprisonment
Rate 1977: 330 Female Imprisonment Rate 1977: 11
Imprisonment Rate 1997: 1,785 Female Imprisonment Rate
1997: 144
Total
Female Sentenced Prisoners 1977: 42
Total Female Sentenced Prisoners 1997: 407
Average
Annual Percent Increase 1977-1997: 17%
Percent
Increase 1999-2004: *
*After 1997, the DC prison population was counted in
the Federal system
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IMPRISONMENT
IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Imprisonment
data for the District of Columbia are included only through
1997. In 1997, the Revitalization Act initiated the transfer
of all sentenced DC prisoners to the custody of the Federal
Bureau of Prisons. The transfer process, which was gradual,
began in 1998 and was fully complete at the end of 2001.
At
year-end 1997, District of Columbia prisons housed 9,353 inmates
serving sentences of more than one year. Of these inmates,
8,946 were male and 407 were female. In 1977, DC prisons housed
42 female inmates; by 1997, the female prison population had
reached 407. The District of Columbia's female prison population
was at its lowest with 42 female prisoners in 1977 and peaked
at 537 female inmates in 1994.
GROWTH
IN FEMALE IMPRISONMENT RATE
Between
1977 and 1997, the District of Columbia's female prison population
grew by 869% with an average annual percent change of 18.4%
per year.
Throughout the period from 1977 to 1997, the District of Columbia's
female imprisonment rate was exceeded the average female imprisonment
rate across the states. In the late 1980s, DC's female imprisonment
rate increased dramatically (as did its overall imprisonment
rate), so that by the early 1990s, the female imprisonment
rate in DC was more than twice as high as the average across
the states. The District of Columbia's imprisonment rate remained
high through the beginning of the transition of sentenced
DC inmates to federal custody.
MALE
TO FEMALE IMPRISONMENT RATIO
The
male to female imprisonment ratio indicates the number of
male inmates for every female inmate. Although both female
and male imprisonment rates have increased over the period
of study, a shrinking ratio suggests that the number of female
prisoners has increased at a faster pace. In 1977, across
the states, there were an average of 26 male prisoners for
every female prisoner; by 2004, this ratio had fallen to 13
male prisoners for every female prisoner. DC's 1977 ratio
was substantially higher than average with 52 male prisoners
for every female prisoner. In 1997, DC's male to female imprisonment
ratio (22:1) remained higher than the average across states.
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