Women's State Incarceration for Drug Offenses In Ohio and Michigan 1980-2022

• In Event: Gendered Processes of Criminalization

Abstract

Following the passage of national and state anti-drug legislation throughout the 1980s and 1990s, women’s state incarceration grew most rapidly throughout the nation. This paper examines how several Mid-Western states’ legislative approaches to drug offenses have reflected/deviated from national policies and subsequently impacted women’s state incarceration for drug offenses between 1980 to 2022. This paper finds that both Ohio and Michigan’s anti-drug legislation and trends mirrored national policies of the 1980s and 1990s. By 1990, drugs accounted for over 30% of women’s commitments to state prison on average across the nation, including Ohio and Michigan. However, after relaxing drug-offense policies in the late 1990s-early 2000s, Michigan’s commitments of women to state prison declined by 127.0% by 2009, with drug offenses dropping to 8.3%. Ohio comparatively increased its commitments of women by 61.7%, and drug offenses to 35.1%. Since the 2010s, both Ohio and Michigan have seen correlative trends in women’s state commitments, including drug offenses immediately following the passage of legislation related to drug offenses. This paper predicts that Ohio’s 2023 legislature will lead to decreasing commitments of women to state prisons for drug offenses in the immediate-following years.

Author

• Tiffany Hsich, The Ohio State University