New report shows where 198,800 incarcerated women in the U.S. are locked up and why

The report goes in-depth on women's incarceration in local jails, ICE detention, and other forms of confinement.

October 14, 2026

A new report shines light on the nearly 200,000 women incarcerated in the U.S. on any given day, revealing what types of facilities these women are held in and on what charges. Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2026, released this morning by the Prison Policy Initiative, provides detail about state and federal prisons, local jails, immigration detention, and other types of confinement — including, for the first time, an estimate of women in involuntary commitment because of a criminal charge.

This report pulls together different data sources to give a unified picture of women’s confinement in the U.S. The report shows that, on any given day:

• 81,000 women are held in state prisons. This number represents a rapid “rebound” from the sharp decline in women’s prison populations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• 87,000 women are in city and county jails under local jurisdiction. About 61% are there awaiting trial.
• 8,300 women and girls are held for immigration-related reasons. The number of women and girls held by ICE has jumped by 31% since 2024, while the number of unaccompanied girls detained by the Office of Refugee Resettlement has dropped sharply.
• Roughly 2,900 women are held in psychiatric or civil commitment facilities for underlying criminal charges. Although these women are held in medical facilities, ostensibly for treatment reasons, both the medical and criminal legal systems have control over their lives.

“By and large, the number of women behind bars in the U.S. is growing,” said report co-author Wendy Sawyer. “Even though the numbers haven’t gotten back to where they were before the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s alarming that women’s prison and jail populations are increasing so fast, particularly since so many are charged with low-level offenses related to poverty and drug use.”

In addition to providing big-picture statistics, Women’s Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2026 also discusses how women experience a very different criminal legal system than men do. For instance:

• Incarcerated women are far more likely than men to be held in a local jail. In particular, despite the fact that these facilities are built for short-term pretrial stays, 26% of all convicted women are serving sentences in local jails, which typically offer fewer programs and services than prisons.
• Women in the criminal legal system are more economically marginalized than men, and have greater needs related to mental and physical health, disability, and substance use. Nevertheless, they often serve their sentences in facilities designed with men in mind, with fewer programs tailored to women.
• Three-quarters of incarcerated women — as compared to two-thirds of the total correctional population — are on probation and parole. Unfortunately, rather than diverting them from jail or prison, probation often sets women up to fail with unrealistic rules and requirements, leading to their incarceration.

“Women continue to end up behind bars because of policies this country should have abandoned long ago: the war on drugs, broken windows policing, and the criminalization of poverty,” report co-author Brian Nam-Sonenstein said. “Lawmakers who want to double down on ‘tough-on-crime’ policies should ask themselves whether it is worth locking up so many women, and worth this country still accounting for one-quarter of all incarcerated women worldwide.”

The full report is available at https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2026women.html.