The rate of incarceration in prison increased from 27 per 100,000 women in 1985 to 57 per 100,000 in 1998. Men still outnumber women in the inmate population by a factor of about 14 to 1, but the gap is narrowing – from 17 to 1 a decade ago. Women constituted only 4 percent of the total prison and jail population in the United State in 1980 but more than 6 percent in 1998.



Which sentence best states the main idea of this passage?