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Editor: Colin Miller

Floyd County, Georgia Has the Second Highest Rate of Jailed Women in the Country

By Colin Miller

Here’s a pretty interesting statistic tangentially related to our Season 2 case for Undisclosed. According to a New York times story, the three counties with the highest rates of jailed women in the country are

Nevada County, Calif.; Floyd County, Ga.; and St. Charles Parish, La. Each has a population of fewer than 100,000 people but a rate of incarceration for women of more than 280 per 100,000, according to the Vera Institute.

Specifically,

In Floyd County there was an average of 504.3 women per 100,000 in jail in 2014, compared to 4.6 per 100,000 in 1970, according to the report. The growth accelerated in the 1990s, with a rate of 71.3 in 1993 rising to 360.3 by 2000.

Here are the graphs demonstrating the counties with the highest rates of jailed women in the country:

Floyd County, Georgia 

Screen Shot 2016-10-19 at 7.19.06 AM
 

 

St. Charles Parish, Louisiana

 

Screen Shot 2016-10-19 at 7.15.19 AM

Nevada County, California

Screen Shot 2016-10-19 at 7.17.10 AM
 

So, in 2014, Nevada County was #1 and Floyd County was #2; however, 2014 seems like an anomaly* for Nevada County while Floyd County has had a high rate for the last decade in a half.

Recently, this statistic became part of the debate between Jeremy Salter and Leigh Patterson, the Rome Circuit District Attorney for the last eighteen years.

Salter said the disparity is an indication that Patterson is targeting women for harsh treatment. He referenced an interview she gave last year counseling people to stop “dressing like hoochies” when they appear before a judge on charges.

“There should be respect but, as a minister of the court, it shouldn’t matter how you dress,” he said, adding that “You have to be focused on equal treatment under the law.”

In response, 

Patterson pointed out that the report does not delve into why women are increasingly being incarcerated but said a reasonable interpretation is that women are committing more crimes.

Patterson pointed out that the report does not delve into why women are increasingly being incarcerated but said a reasonable interpretation is that women are committing more crimes….

Patterson said last week that 68 percent of the women in jail now are there for probation violations.

“I’m not going to ignore their crimes, and you shouldn’t want me to,” she told the crowd.

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*Does anyone have an idea of why the rate shot up in Nevada County in 2014?

-CM