The U.S. prison system is designed for men and is, thus, less responsive to the needs of women, and even less so for mothers.

This number is trending upward: between 1980 and 2022, the female prison population in the U.S. grew by more than 585 percent, more than twice the growth rate of the male prison population.

Just last year, a women’s prison in Dublin, Calif., nicknamed the “rape club,” was shut down for its rampant culture of sexual violence.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., allowed a group of more than 2,000 transgender inmates in federal prisons to pursue a lawsuit challenging the order as a class action.

Big Number 2,198. That’s how many transgender inmates are within the federal prison system as of Feb. 20, 2025, according to Bureau of Prisons data obtained by NPR. Key Background ...

Maine 'won’t be the last' state to lose funding over housing trans inmates in women’s prisons: Trump official By Jamie Joseph Fox News Published April 10, 2025 2:56pm EDT Flipboard ...

And the state needs a smaller, more modern prison to house and rehabilitate women who committed serious crimes. The existing Framingham prison lacks air conditioning. A lawsuit alleging inmates were ...

Inmates and their families are raising alarms about the dire conditions at Tutwiler Prison for Women, describing it as a ...

Members of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus introduced a slate of bills to reform women’s prisons in California on Thursday morning, building on a broader push toward rehabilitation ...

A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled the U.S. Bureau of Prisons must keep providing transgender inmates gender-affirming care, despite an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day ...