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The number of women behind bars in Colorado and across the globe has increased by nearly 60 percent over the past 25 years, according to a new Prison Policy Initiative report. Colorado ranks 25th among all states. But its incarceration rate for women is still ten times higher than in Canada and more than 13 times higher than in France.

Wanda Bertram, communications strategist with the Initiative, said many states are doubling down on prosecuting low-level offenses that women are vulnerable to when going through hard times.

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"Offenses that are associated with homelessness, like sleeping on the street, panhandling, trespassing. Offenses that are correlated with poverty, like petty theft, drug offenses," she said.

Worldwide, more than 740,000 women and girls are currently in prison, including nearly 200,000 in the United States. America’s incarceration rate is higher than any other nation except El Salvador, a country that has been described as an authoritarian police state.

In 1980, Colorado spent 45 million dollars to incarcerate 2.600 people. By 2015, the Department of Corrections’ budget grew to more than $782 million with more than 20,000 Coloradans behind bars. Bertram believes there are better ways to invest in people.

"You can invest in health care, you can invest in community services to keep people out of the criminal justice system," Bertram explained.

Bertram added that while men are still incarcerated at higher rates than women, their numbers have been on the decline, and added that it is a different situation for women right now.

"The criminalization of essentially addiction, of mental illness and of poverty has driven women's incarceration in a way that is distinct from what has happened for men," she continued.