[JURIST] The ACLU [advocacy website], Break the Chains [advocacy website], and the Brennan Center for Justice [official website] released a report Thursday indicating that America's war on drugs is inflicting deep and disproportionate harm on women, most of them mothers. The report states mothers are filling prisons at a fast-increasing pace despite mostly minor roles in drug rings. 101,000 women were in state or federal prison in 2003, an eight-fold increase since 1980. The report, released as the centerpiece of a two-day national conference [official website] in New York focusing on incarcerated women, recommends an expansion of drug treatment programs and states incarceration should be a last resort. The report also urges vigorous efforts to maintain ties between imprisoned mothers and their children. Read the Caught in the Net [PDF] report. AP has more.