Prison Portraits

As a result of Mexico's drug war, the number of women in prison for federal crimes has quadrupled in the past three years. Ciudad Juarez is the "front-line" of Mexico's Drug War, with 3,000 murdered in 2010 alone. In Juarez an estimated 80 percent of female inmates are incarcerated for narcotics related crimes.

The expansion of the drug cartels into street gangs has directly led to more involvement by women in crime this year, from girlfriends to family members to gang members themselves. It is now a known tactic for criminals to recruit pretty women in order to train them as assassins or use them to lure kidnapping victims. In addition, as more and more women become widows from the all-encompassing violence in Juarez, they are also also lured into criminal activity(illegal drug transportation in particular) as one of the only financial options available to support their family.