PHOENIX — A newly released report of women incarcerated at the all-female Estrella Jail in Phoenix found high levels of domestic violence, sexual assault, childhood abuse and other traumas.

The findings will help the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) better understand the lived experiences of incarcerated women, which could help reduce recidivism, according to Arizona State University professor Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, one of the study’s co-authors.

“I would boldly say that incarcerated women are among the most traumatized people in our country,” Roe-Sepowitz told ASU News. “In no other population could we identify that 80% are victims of domestic violence or that 64% have experienced sexual violence as an adult.”

Roe-Sepowitz is the director of ASU’s Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research (STIR), which collaborated with MCSO’s Human Trafficking Jail Team to create the 2025 Estrella Jail Study.

What did 2025 Estrella Jail Study find about incarcerated women in Phoenix?

The two offices have been working together to identify detained women who are victims of sex trafficking since 2018.

STIR and MCSO developed a training program called Sex Trafficking Behind Bars. In 2024, more than 300 MCSO staff members received this sex trafficking training.

The new survey, which contained responses from 49% of the nearly 830 inmates at the Estrella Jail, marks their latest collaboration. Here are some of the findings:

  • 80.1% of respondents were victims of domestic violence.
  • 62.2% of respondents were victims of sexual assault as an adult.
  • 50.9% of respondents were victims of sex trafficking.
  • 78.9% of respondents experienced homelessness.
  • 58% of respondents experienced childhood emotional abuse.
  • 50.5% of respondents experienced childhood physical abuse.
  • 51.1% of respondents experienced childhood sexual abuse.
  • 65.9% of respondents reported a drug addiction.
  • 77% of respondents reported a mental health diagnosis.
  • 76.3% of respondents reported history with self-harm.
  • 59.1% of respondents have children under age 18.

Fourteen percent of the 408 women who took part in the survey said they were first-time offenders.

MCSO Deputy Chief Brandon Smith, another co-author of the 2025 Estrella Jail Study, said he hopes the findings will help law enforcement find new ways to set first-time offenders on better paths.

“We have a very small window for programs for these women because first-time offenders are in custody for about seven days,” Smith told ASU News. “We’re trying to provide classes and other resources so they don’t become a second- or third-time offender.”

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