By Kirsten Clancy

Women in correctional facilities are often there because of drugs, said the speaker of the final event of the 15th annual UK Black Women’s Conference on Thursday.

Sometimes they use the drugs to drown out pain, physical and emotional, said Dr. Cassandra Newkirk, the vice-president for Baltimore-based Correctional Mental Health Services. Other times, they are simply caught with drugs on them, sometimes carrying them for a boyfriend.

“They are the mules, as we call them,” Newkirk said.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Black Women in Correctional Settings.” About 50 people attended Newkirk’s speech, “Mental Health Needs of Women,” which was the Dr. Doris Y. Wilkinson Distinguished Lecture.

Newkirk’s speech title included the word incarcerated, but she changed the title because the same problems plaguing women in correctional facilities are the same “in the free world.”

These problems include mental disorders such as bipolar disorder and depression. Substance abuse is also a problem because women are more likely than men to use drugs and alcohol, Newkirk said.

Abuse, especially during childhood, is one reason women use drugs, she said. The girls often do not tell they are being abused, or if they do tell, they are often not believed, Newkirk said, and this sometimes causes them to do drugs to block out the memories.

These problems are especially prevalent in correctional facilities, where 64 to 71 percent of inmates are African-American women, Newkirk said. Upon entering a facility, a woman is asked if she was abused and many say yes. Now this question is being asked to men as well, who also answer yes in surprising numbers, Newkirk said.

She said there is a stigma of mental illness, especially in African-American families and churches.

“You can do well if you have the support,” Newkirk said.