In 2013, Robyn Allen received a 20-year sentence for trafficking in illegal drugs. She says she sold methamphetamine to support her family after a back injury left her without work. But the reasons Allen started using the drug run much deeper.
In spite of taking measures to reduce its long-standing record as the No. 1 incarcerator of women in the country, Oklahoma keeps locking up women at more than twice the national average. Oklahoma incarcerates 151 out of every 100,000 women, often given harsh sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. This has taken its toll on several generations of women in the state.