Tracy Williams with her daughters Brianna and Renisha. Photo taken at MCI Framingham.

Listen to Part 2: "Women Behind Bars"
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Listen to Follow-up conversations
 Listen to Tracy Williams recount her prison experience.
 Listen to a conversation with the Superintendant of MCI Framingham and a national expert on women in prison.

In the past two decades, women have gone to prison in record numbers. Women are now the fastest growing group of prisoners in the nation. Massachusetts is no exception. The state's women's prison, MCI Framingham, is jammed with inmates. In fact, it's currently 125% over capacity.

Prisoner advocates and correctional officials say they're troubled by the trend, in part because most women prisoners are not violent offenders, but drug addicts and mothers.

In Part 2 of our series, "The Price of Punishment”, producer Jennifer Schmidt explores the costs and consequences of putting women behind bars.

Lawmakers Investigating Alleged Prisoner Mistreatment - a WBUR report WBUR Investigates Allegations of Abuse of Prisoners National Criminal Justice Reference Service NCJRS's report, "Women Offenders: Programming Needs and Promising Approaches" General Accounting Office General Accounting Office's report, "Women In Prison: Issues and Challenges Confronting U.S. Correctional Systems" Massachusetts Department of Corrections