By Hadas Kuznits

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A protest and rally against overcrowding was held in front of Philadelphia’s Riverside Correctional Facility Saturday afternoon.

Pat Albright, a member of the Every Mother’s a Working Mother Network, says she came out with her sign to protest conditions at women’s prisons.

“There have been protests out in California and the women who are in Chowchilla prison have called for a day of action,” she said. “So we’re here in solidarity with them.”

(Credit: Hadas Kuznits)

Theresa Shoatz, with the human rights coalition, says what is needed are services, not jails.

“What’s going on here is that women are being placed behind bars where they in reality need general assistance and we’re lacking on that here in Pennsylvania,” she said.

“Part of the reason for overcrowding is that there have been so many women who are incarcerated because of crimes of poverty and just because of desperation,” Albright adds.

Albright says it’s no coincidence that so many of the women incarcerated nationally are single mothers:

“There is an increasing number of women who are disproportionately criminalized because of poverty issues.”