Fencing is seen at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A new report shows women’s incarceration has surged more than 600% since 1980.

Four decades ago, about 26,000 women were held in jails or prisons. By 2023, that number had climbed to about 186,000.

Nazgol Ghandnoosh, research director for The Sentencing Project, said most women in prison are there for nonviolent offenses – like property or drug crimes, or even carrying a weapon. She added that one in 11 women nationwide is serving a life sentence.

“In Tennessee, the prison population is about 2,300 people – and of those, 270 of those women are serving a life sentence,” said Ghandnoosh. “So, that means 11% of Tennessee’s prison population of women are serving a life sentence.”

She pointed out in 2020, during the COVID-19, pandemic incarceration levels dropped sharply as fewer people were sentenced because of public health risks in crowded jails and prisons. That year, the number of incarcerated women fell to about 153,000.

But Ghandnoosh said those numbers have crept back up since then.

Ghandnoosh noted that nationwide, there is some good news about racial disparities in the prison system. When data for women are broken down by race and ethnicity, they show a significant decline in incarceration rates overall – and a dramatic decline among Black women.

“So, there’s been a 67% decline in the imprisonment levels of Black women between the year 2020 and 2023,” said Ghanoosh. “When we look at Latina women during that period, there’s been a 15% decline. And unfortunately, during that period, there’s been an increase in imprisonment levels for white women.”

She said Tennessee is reopening prisons and considering a huge new jail in Memphis, but overcrowding isn’t about space – it has more to do with the state’s sentencing laws.

Under the new truth-in-sentencing policy, many must serve 85% to 100% of their sentence, which keeps people behind bars longer.

Ghandnoosh said reforms – like second-look sentencing and the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act – give courts a chance to review old cases, consider trauma or abuse that may have influenced crimes, and sometimes reduce a person’s sentence.