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“Detaining a woman inevitably means detaining her family,” an adolescent woman in Sierra Leone explained to me, holding her tiny newborn in a damp cell. This sentiment resonates with a individual experience from my teenage years, hearing my mother sob after learning my father had been detained for political reasons in Zambia.

I understand deeply how children become the secondary casualties of imprisonment. Through twenty years as a legal professional, I have seen that this is especially the case when the primary caregivers, usually women – are the ones apprehended.

I have witnessed the devastating impact of imprisonment on numerous female inmates and their children. Furthermore, I have seen how their perspectives are ignored, even within spaces dedicated to women’s rights.

Debunking the ‘Bad Girl’ Stereotype

Society frequently tags women in prison as “wrongdoers.” Yet consider if this designation is a fallacy? Most of women behind bars are detained because of non-violent offences. Comprehensive studies conducted over the last 24 months reveals that in the majority of instances, women are penalized due to destitution, mental health challenges, violence or prejudice.

Half of all women in prison, compared to less than a third of men, experience a drug addiction in the year before imprisonment.

In a detention center in South Africa, a woman shared her arrest for shoplifting, an act of desperation to feed her family. In Sierra Leone, numerous women were found to be arrested for owing money. In Kenya, stories abound of women arrested for “informal selling” – trading items without a licence – simply to survive.

Women from Mexico explained how the global narcotics crackdown is contributing to an increase in the number of women in prison, particularly in Latin America and Asia. A significant number participate in narcotics distribution due to economic need and coercion; despite not being leaders in the illegal drug market, they are more readily arrested by police trying to meet quotas.

When Violence is a Response

The small proportion of women who are convicted of violent acts are usually survivors of violence themselves. Consider, 21-year-old Chisomo from Malawi, arrested for the killing of her ex-partner. He had attacked her and threatened to kill her if she left. Chisomo finally fled after he attempted to stab her. But, he eventually confronted her again, stabbing her. In self-defence, she seized the weapon and fought back.

I have collaborated with lawyers across the globe who fight for legal processes to account for a woman’s context of economic hardship and mistreatment. Yet, even with this work, a judicial framework designed historically by and for men continues to let women down through inherent biases. Those who deviate from societal norms of the moral and motherly woman are often punished more harshly.

Correctional facilities are rarely safe spaces for women. At-risk females go into prison and are released with deeper psychological wounds.

My research has recorded instances where women have experienced sexual violence and where practices such as invasive strip-searches and solitary confinement cause further harm to women with backgrounds of assault or psychiatric disorders. Imprisoned women’s rates of self-injury are often exceed those in prisons for men.

In spite of international standards stipulating that prison should be a ultimate measure, particularly for pregnant women and women with infants, devastating reports are still heard of women who miscarry and of newborns who do not survive in detention.

Children: The Unseen Casualties

Children – whether with their mothers in detention or separated at home – are the unseen sufferers. Data shows there are at least 19,000 children detained in prison with their mothers, while a overwhelming 1.4 million children live with a mother in prison.

The cycle of trauma of a parent's incarceration on children are extensively documented. One cannot forget trying to trace the children of a distressed inmate in Sierra Leone, who had no idea what had happened to them after her arrest. A community member had cared for them but the young daughter went to vend goods the street to support herself and was never seen again.

A Global Blind Spot

Among the most aggravating realities is how female detention remains a neglected area. Major conferences on gender equality, where strategic decisions and resource allocation are set, repeatedly omit this pressing matter. Notably, there was not a single reference of women in prison in the official statement at the a major UN women's rights forum this year.

Research indicates that organisations working with and for incarcerated women are critically underfunded, even by contributors to advocacy for justice and equity. Historically, stigma, a desire to promote only “sympathetic victims” and the sidelining of those who do not fit straightforward profiles has meant that marginalised women and their children are neglected, in the face of promises to “include everyone.”

Glimmers of Hope and Reform

Yet amid witnessing suffering, one can find optimism. Around the world, women are reimagining what justice could look like, from the interior and exterior of correctional facilities. In Colombia, campaigners helped pass an innovative law allowing women to serve community sentences rather than be incarcerated in specific cases.

In Sierra Leone, women's rights law organizations successfully contested outdated vagrancy statutes. In the UK, community support centers for women offer a example of local aid that is superior in outcomes and lower in expense than prison.

A couple of years back, at the initial meeting of a worldwide alliance of formerly incarcerated women, I was moved to tears hearing stories of women transforming deep suffering into something liberating, providing each other with solidarity and collaborating to reshape the structures that impact their lives.

As the number of women in prison rises steadily at an alarming rate – increasing at a higher rate than that of men – and we near the concerning figure of in excess of 1,000,000 women in prison worldwide, this serves as a critical alert.

A Call for Accountability and Action

The year ahead offers significant chances for influence to redress this omission – from international forums to large-scale women’s rights gatherings.

Governments need to be called to answer for their {failure to implement|inability