Drug offenses accounted for half of the increase in the number of women incarcerated in State prisons from 1986 to 1996, compared to one-third of the increase for men. The number of women incarcerated in State prisons for a drug offense increased by 888 percent from 1986 to 1996, in contrast to an increase of 129 percent for non-drug offenses. Drug offenses accounted for a dramatic proportion of the increase in the number of women sentenced to prison from 1986 to 1995. National data obscure substantial variations among the States in the degree to which drug offenses have affected women's involvement in the criminal justice system. Whereas drug offenses accounted for 63 percent of the increase in women's arrests in New York from 1986 to 1995, they represented just 10 percent of the increase in Minnesota. Minority women (black and Hispanic) represent a disproportionate share of the women sentenced to prison for a drug offense. Eighty-two percent of the Hispanic women sentenced to prison in New York in 1995 were convicted of a drug offense, as were 65 percent of black women and 40 percent of white women. 7 tables and 3 figures