The growing use of illegal drugs, Vermont officials suspect, might be behind a recent surge in female inmates in the state.

Women remain only a small portion of the prison population but their numbers are growing.

Ten years ago women represented about 15 percent of those entering the corrections system for the first time. Now they account for more than 25 percent.

Nationally, the number of women in prison also has grown but not as quickly as it has in Vermont.

In 2003, the Southeast State Correctional Facility, formerly a prisoner-run farm housing men, was converted to a women's prison to accommodate the growing numbers.

Although fewer than 200 women are in the state's prisons at any given time, their typically short sentences mean that almost 1,000 go through the system each year.

Like Janet Slossberg, who is serving time on drug charges, most have children. Nearly 40 percent of those children ended up in state custody after their mothers were incarcerated. It costs the state, on average, $25,000 a year to care for a child.

Slossberg was a single mother and a college graduate working at an entry-level administrative job when she started dealing and using drugs, she said.

Michael Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, said there should be a way to reduce the number of women in prison.

"We have some substance abuse issues in this state that we haven't paid enough attention to until recently," Smith said.

Case workers say about 95 percent of female inmates had drug or alcohol problems when they came into prison. The majority were convicted of nonviolent crimes related to their drug use, state officials said.

Fifteen percent of female inmates are in prison in Vermont for violent crimes. For men, the percentage is about 60 percent, officials said