http://www.demossnewspond.com/pf/additional/statistics_about_women_prisoners

Population Size/Type of Offense
(Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, October 2005 and May 2006)
* Women are 7% of the prison population-up from 6.1% in 1995
* By mid-year 2006, there were 106,174 women in state and federal prisons and another 94,571 were in our nation's jails
* As of 2002, 33% were sentenced for Violent Offenses
* As of 2002, 28.7% were sentenced for Property Offenses
* As of 2002, 31.5% were sentenced for Drug Offenses

http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/women/womeninpriso/

The problem of women in prison is directly tied to current US drug policy. For the last ten years, researchers have argued that the war on drugs has become a war on women (Belknap, 2002; Bloom & Chesney-Lind, 2000; Owen, 2000 & 1998, Cheney-Lind, 1997). In examining the increase in female prisoners, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that about 1 in 3 women were likely serving time for a drug offense as compared to 1 in 8 in 1986 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1999). The Bureau of Prisons reports that almost 80% of their female population is incarcerated for drug-related offenses. This compares to only 26% of the 1981 female federal prison population that was held for drug offenses.
[...]
Research on women in prison has reveled that women's criminality must be understood in terms of the context of women's lives (Pollock, 2002; Belknap, 2001; Chensey-Lind, 1997). This context is informed by the three central issues shape the lives of women prior to imprisonment: multiplicity of abuse in their pre-prison lives; disrupted family and personal relationships, particularly those relating to male partners and children; and drug use (Owen, 1998). Given this background, spiraling marginality and subsequent criminality is a common result. Combined with a public policy that criminalizes drug-using behavior, the outcome is ever-increasing rates of imprisonment for women.

As to accountability, you are very correct. Wherever the cause was due to a man in their lives, she made the choice of being with that man. However, it should be noted that women sometimes chose to be with the “wrong” man for the support of her children or a lack of faith in the potential of other options.

A couple of interesting articles that may be marginal in statistical findings have been observed at least anecdotally.

Many Women Go To Jail For Their Boyfriends

http://www.ktul.com/news/stories/0310/717775.html

Women prisoners report significant histories of domestic violence. Thirty-two percent of women in prison (approximately 4,000 women) serving sentences for murder were convicted of killing a husband, ex-husband or boyfriend.

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~kastor/walking-steel-95/ws-women-in-prison.html

If one has an interest in the conditions and policy changes with respect to female prisoners in California, Google Joan Petersilia

Too much sex is still not enough

But thanks for the feedback. A part of me was planning to go to the sentencing hearing. But now that this is out of my system, I'm not going to anymore.

Be safe everyone!