The regular Visitors to this sub probably know about this. But for those who do not, men generally serve longer sentences than women for the same crime, even when you control for criminal history in the United States. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285086688_Gender_and_sentencing_A_meta-analysis_of_contemporary_research The rational for this that judicial officials give is that women need to care for children so sending them to prison carries greater social costs. But I feel that this is unjust. Justice doesn't care who you are or how important your role is in society. That is what makes it justice.

Yesterday, I wrote my representatives to ask them to stop this by standardizing sentences. I proposed solving the children problem by having the state hire someone to care for the children of convicts while their primary caregiver is in prison. If you agree with that solution, then great. If you disagree, then propose your own here in the comments. If you contest that imprisoning women carries a greater social cost than imprisoning men, then say why in the comments. But one person doing this isn't going to make much of a difference. So if you are a registered voter in the U.S., then go find your representatives at both the state and the local level here. https://www.commoncause.org/ go to the "find your representatives" page and put in your address and zip code. If you don't know your 4 digit extension, then go look it up at the U.S. postal services website. https://tools.usps.com/zip-code-lookup.htm

Then go send your representatives an email explaining the problem: that men get longer prison sentences than women and that this is unjust, and the solution: standardized sentences. Keep it short straight and to the point, to increase the odds that someone will actually read the entire thing. If you only contact one representative, then make it a state representative, not a federal representative. Most prison sentencing happens at the state and local level, and the local governments are just administrative conveniences of the state governments. Plus, state representatives represent fewer people, so they will have more time to actually get to your request.

If you are not a registered voter in the U.S. But you are a U.S. citizen, then register to vote, obviously. Then you can contact your representatives same as everyone else and they will have an incentive to listen to you. If you are not a U.S. citizen, then try and spread this around to the people who are on social media and IRL. I don't expect this to actually achieve equal sentencing overnight. But I do expect it to move our politics in the right direction. So if you are with me on this, then let your representatives know. They work for you, not vice versa.