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The number of women behind bars in Utah and across the globe has increased by more than 60 percent in the past 25 years, according to a new report from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Utah ranks 36th among the states but its incarceration rate for women is still higher than in countries like Canada and France.

Wanda Bertram, communications strategist for the initiative, said many states are doubling down on prosecuting low-level offenses, to which women are vulnerable when going through hard times.

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"Offenses that are associated with homelessness," Bertram outlined. "Like sleeping on the street, panhandling, trespassing. Offenses that are correlated with poverty, like petty theft, drug offenses."

Worldwide, more than 740,000 women and girls are currently in prison, including nearly 200,000 in the U.S. America’s incarceration rate is higher than any other nation except El Salvador, a country which has been described as an authoritarian police state.

In 2001, Utah spent $85 million to incarcerate 4,800 people. By 2023, the Utah Department of Corrections’ budget had grown to more than $152 million. Bertram believes there are better ways to invest in people.

"You can invest in health care, you can invest in community services, to keep people out of the criminal justice system," Bertram urged.

Bertram added while men are still incarcerated at higher rates than women, the numbers for men have been on the decline. But it is a different situation for women right now.

"The criminalization of essentially addiction, of mental illness and of poverty, has driven women's incarceration in a way that is distinct from what has happened for men," Bertram observed.