While the struggles of women in prison in the United States have many common threads, their lives are largely shaped by state-specific legislation and culture, rarely by federal legislation. This timeline attempts to capture that reality by highlighting state legislation that led to nationwide trends, as well as relevant federal legislation.
1835—The Mount Pleasant Female Prison, the first prison in the United States to house only women, opens in New York.
1869—A bill for a “Female Prison and Reformatory Institution for Girls and Women,” pushed by Quaker reformers concerned about sexual abuse of prisoners, passes the Indiana state legislature.
1873—Indiana Women’s Prison opens. It is the country’s first adult female maximum-security correctional facility,
1927—The first federal women’s prison, the Federal Industrial Institution for Women, opens in West Virginia.
1956—The U.S. Congress passes the Narcotics Control Act of 1956, beginning a trend of increasing penalties for drug use and possession.
1970—The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act introduces an extensive classification system for drug offenses, increasing federal control over identified substances. This allows for the federal prosecution of drug sellers and users.
1971—President Richard Nixon popularizes the phrase “war on drugs.”
1973—New York passes the Rockefeller Drug Laws, establishing more severe sentencing standards for drug offenses. The rigidity of the sentencing rules sweeps many women into the prison system who might otherwise have been sentenced to either jail or probation. The sentencing laws are soon replicated by other states.
1977—The Washington State Supreme Court establishes the “reasonable woman standard” in State v. Wanrow, laying the groundwork for the battered woman syndrome defense.
1987—The Missouri legislature becomes the first in the country to vote to allow evidence of battered woman syndrome as a defense in a criminal trial. Other states soon follow suit.
1992—The Federal Highway Apportionment Act provides financial incentives to states to suspend the driver’s licenses of those convicted of minor drug offenses.
1993—Washington State passes the country’s first “three strikes” law, starting a nationwide trend of mandated long sentences for minor crimes.
1996—Congress passes the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which limits the ability of people in prison to access federal courts.
—The Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act bans those convicted of drug offenses from receiving federal food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. At a time when upwards of 80 percent of women in prison and jail are mothers, this ban has a dramatic effect on their ability to care for their dependent children.
1997—President Bill Clinton signs the Adoption and Safe Families Act, requiring early termination of parental rights for women in prison.
1998—The Aid Elimination Provision of the Higher Education Act prohibits students who have been convicted of drug offenses from receiving federal financial aid toward their tuition.
—The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women visits the United States to investigate conditions in U.S. women’s prisons. Her subsequent report, published in 1999, highlights the appalling conditions around health and sexual abuse that she found in women’s prisons, as well as abuses around family unity. The report also notes the overrepresentation of women of color in prison as evidence of deep-rooted discrimination within the criminal justice system.
2000—The U.S. Supreme Court, in Apprendi v. New Jersey (530 U.S. 466 [2000]), rules that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial prohibits judges from enhancing criminal sentences beyond statutory maximums based on facts other than those decided by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Prior to Apprendi, judges could sentence defendants for counts of which they had been acquitted, which had resulted in substantially increased sentences for many female defendants.
2005—The Higher Education Act is reformed to allow aid for students found guilty of drug offenses before their enrollment. However, their financial assistance will be cut if they are convicted of such an offense during their time as a student.
—In the Supreme Court cases United States v. Booker and United States v. Fanfan, the Court rules that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial requires that current federal sentencing guidelines be advisory, not mandatory. This permits lower court judges to deviate from previous sentencing rules if they feel it would serve the interests of justice.
2009—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit rules that shackling pregnant prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment.
2011—The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women returns to the United States to examine violence in the United States and includes visits to U.S. prisons to look for changes since her visit in 1998. In June 2011 she releases her report on this visit, detailing changes and ongoing violations, as well as recommendations.