More women are going to jail than ever before

While men still far outnumber women in jails and prisons across the country, women have had a far higher rate of growth in local jails than men, a new study by the Vera Institute of Justice and the Safety and Justice Challenge found. Women now end up in jail cells at a rate of 14 times what it was in the 1970s; about 110,000 women were awaiting trial or sentencing in 2014, compared to fewer than 8,000 in 1970.

"Once a rarity, women are now held in jails in nearly every county — a stark contrast to 1970, when almost three-quarters of counties held not a single woman in jail," the researchers wrote.

The most common arrests were drug related; between 1980 and 2009, the rate of arrest for drug possession doubled for men but tripled for women. Many arrests also involved property crimes, such as shoplifting; arrests are also growing for violating parole or probation, or missing court-ordered appearances. Many women also are unable to make bail or pay fines. As a result, women made up 26 percent of total arrests in 2014, up from 11 percent in 1960. Around 80 percent of the women arrested have children, and most are poor and Latina, or African-American, The New York Times reports.

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"As the focus on these smaller crimes has increased, women have been swept up into the system to an even greater extent than men," one of the paper's authors, Elizabeth Swavola.