13% of women in Pa. prisons serving life amid US incarceration spike

Most women who are incarcerated in Pennsylvania are serving time for nonviolent offenses, such as drug or property crimes or weapons possession.

Women’s incarceration has increased by more than 600% since 1980, according to a new report from The Sentencing Project.

Four decades ago, about 26,000 women were held in jails or prisons in the United States. By 2023, that number had grown to roughly 186,000.

Nazgol Ghandnoosh, director of research for The Sentencing Project, said one in 11 imprisoned women nationwide is serving a life sentence. She added most women who are incarcerated in Pennsylvania are serving time for nonviolent offenses, such as drug or property crimes or weapons possession.

“Pennsylvania’s prison population has just over 2,000 women, and among these 2,000 women, 275 are serving some kind of a life sentence,” Ghandnoosh said. “That’s 13% of Pennsylvania’s female prison population serving a life sentence.”

She noted in 2020, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, incarceration dropped sharply as courts slowed sentencing to reduce health risks in crowded jails and prisons. The number of incarcerated women fell to about 153,000 that year. But Ghandnoosh said those numbers have steadily increased since then.

Ghandnoosh explained a Pennsylvania law driving long sentences for women is the state’s felony murder statute, which mandates life without parole for anyone convicted of felony murder. Under the law, if someone is involved in a crime where a death occurs, they are treated as if they committed intentional murder.

Advocates said it is especially harsh for women, who may be coerced by abusive partners ― for example, a woman might be pressured into serving as an accomplice to a crime. No matter the nature of the offense, they would still face a mandatory sentence of life without parole if someone is killed during the crime.

“Right now, in Pennsylvania, we’re waiting on a state Supreme Court ruling to determine whether that kind of sentencing law is appropriate,” Ghandnoosh noted. “That could have dramatic implications for people serving life-without-parole sentences, including women in the state.”

Ghandnoosh added there is some encouraging news when it comes to racial disparities in women’s incarceration nationwide. Data broken down by race and ethnicity show a decline in incarceration among certain groups. Between 2000 and 2023, imprisonment of Black women fell by 67%. Latina women also saw a 15% decline in the same period. Incarceration increased for White women over that time, reshaping but not eliminating racial gaps in the prison system.