The first study carried out by the Research
Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
Consortium on Drugs and the Law (CEDD) demonstrated the impact of drug policies on the increase in Latin America in the incarceration of women, who are generally imprisoned for the nonviolent offenses of small-scale dealing or transporting drugs. Although the total number of women in prison is still far below the male population, the overall percentage of incarcerated women increased considerably in nearly all of the countries under study, with the exception of Bolivia.
[It is not yet possible to pinpoint the reasons why there has been a decline in the female incarceration rate in Bolivia. In recent years, there have been significant increases in the minimum wage, while at the same time benefits were expanded for pregnant women and mothers, and the economy improved overall. The four pardon initiatives to date have benefited many women, especially since they tend to be for lesser crimes.]
In the period 2001-2015, the incarceration rate of women in Mexico (per 100,000 of population) has more than tripled, from 7.1% to 21.6%. In Brazil, from 2000 to 2013, it has it has also increased more than three-fold, from 5.8% to 17.5%. And over similar time periods it has more than doubled in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
These women share a similar socio-demographic profile: They are young, poor, single mothers and heads of household, with responsibility of caring for their children and other family members. They often have low levels of education, and frequently they belong to ethnic minorities (including Afro descendant and indigenous).
In Brazil, for example, about 55% of incarcerated women are of African descent, and in Mexico, a significant number of indigenous women are in prison for drug-related offenses. This underscores the fact that drug law implementation is always selective; generally it is those who are the poorest and weakest who are punished, and women in situations of social exclusion and/or vulnerability are disproportionately affected.
The percentage of women incarcerated for drug-related crimes in recent years is stunning: 75% in Costa Rica, 65% in Argentina, 61% in Brazil and Peru, 48% in Bolivia, 45% in Mexico and Colombia and 43% in Ecuador.
The consequences of the use of prisons can be seen not only in terms of how these women’s lives are affected but also in the impact on their families, children and dependents, who are left unprotected socially and economically. In Colombia, of all the women held in prison for drug offenses between 2010 and 2014, 93% had children. A study by the Costa Rican Public Defender’s Office shows that of the 120 women convicted for bringing drugs into prisons (15% of the total), 50% were responsible for three or more children.
This means that the incarceration of women for drug offenses has a bigger impact on the destruction of family ties and greater implications for children’s best interests, while also affecting the women themselves (beyond their role as mothers).
The studies by CEDD also reveal that a significant number of incarcerated women had never been in prison before and a sizable proportion of them are foreigners. The women who act as “couriers” or transporters are detained with drugs hidden in their baggage or inside their bodies. Many of them have been deceived, threatened or intimidated into transporting drugs. In Argentina, nine of every 10 foreign-born women incarcerated for drug crimes in federal prisons were detained for acting as “couriers”; of that group, 96% are first-time offenders and nearly all of them are on the lowest rungs of the drug trafficking ladder.
This means that their detention does not have any impact on the drug trade, which is booming in the region. The traffickers’ recruitment of women suffering from extreme poverty criminalizes those who are most vulnerable and who are attracted to the drug trafficking business because of their situation of socioeconomic vulnerability.
In the majority of countries in the region —with the exception of Ecuador and Costa Rica, which recently reformed their drug laws— legislation does not distinguish between the different degrees of participation and involvement of women in the offense, and as a result they face very long prison sentences. Recognizing this gender issue, Costa Rica passed a law to shorten sentences for women who bring drugs into prisons, recognizing that many of them live in conditions of vulnerability that are largely associated with gender.
Another example is Bolivia, which very recently issued a Supreme Decree that allows pardons for women who are more than 24 weeks pregnant. Studies show that the growth in the number of women detained for drug-related offenses in the region, which is even greater than that of men, goes hand-in-hand with the progressive toughening of drug laws.
Luciana Boiteux, who recently reported the CEDD findings, said:
The increase in the female prison population for these crimes reflects a global trend, and the damage is felt especially keenly in Latin American countries due to the region’s complex sociopolitical conditions. This harm is seen mainly among women who enter into the process of feminization of poverty and are affected by the gender inequalities prevalent in Latin America. For this reason, the feminist criminologist Chesney-Lind states that ‘the war on drugs is a war on women.’
Here are CEDD’s recommendations: a) Expand access to prison data on gender, which can serve as the basis for designing effective public policies. b) Significantly reduce the levels of incarceration of women by applying the principle of proportionality in sentencing and adopting alternatives to incarceration, both in the case of pretrial detention and the serving of sentences. c) Reform drug laws to distinguish between small, medium and large-scale drug offenses, between degrees of leadership in criminal networks, between violent and nonviolent crimes, as well as according to the type of drugs involved.
d) Ensure that judges have the flexibility to take into account factors of vulnerability and whether the accused woman has dependents. e) Pregnant women and mothers of minors who are convicted of drug offenses should not be incarcerated; alternatives to incarceration should be contemplated for them. f) If mothers of minors are incarcerated, mechanisms must be created to safeguard their children and the protection of the children’s best interests must take precedence over any other consideration. g) Promote processes for social integration —including educational programs, technical training or jobs— as alternatives to incarceration, and both within prisons and outside them for women who are granted parole or early release, or have finished serving their sentence. h) Guarantee and expand women’s participation in the debate on drug policy, especially those women who have been the most affected, such as users of illicit drugs, incarcerated women, and the mothers, wives or partners of incarcerated men.
