Type:
News
Posted date:
08 Jan 2026
Bar chart showing countries with highest female prisoner numbers

A powerful news report on Brazil’s dramatic rise in female prisoner numbers has used data from our World Female Imprisonment List. Quoting Catherine Heard, Director of ICPR’s World Prison Research Programme, Heloísa Traiano of Deutche Welle (Brazil) explains in her piece how Brazil’s failed war on drugs has helped catapult the country to rank third highest worldwide in its total number of women prisoners, behind only America and China.

The article was later republished by Brazil’s best-read newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo, which sells 350,000 copies daily and receives millions of monthly page views. 

Read an English translation of the article and learn more about female imprisonment trends at our World Prison Brief website. 

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