WOMEN'S JAIL SPACE TIGHT IN COUNTY

Unprecedented Number of Inmates Causing Stress

An unprecedented number of women overcrowding the Boulder County Jail
since summer has forced the Sheriff's Office to come up with creative
temporary housing solutions.

But the unequal arrangements are causing envy, animosity and stress
among inmates, some inmates said.

Since July, the jail has been consistently holding 20 more women than
usual, increasing the percentage of women in the 400-inmate building
from 9 percent to 12 percent of total jail population. The increase
has forced county judges to release some inmates early and the sheriff
to move many work-release prisoners to halfway houses.

The trend isn't limited to Boulder County. Since 1990, the number of
women jailed has doubled nationally, said an official with the
American Jail Association, and there are no signs overcrowding issues
will cease soon.

Masharey Preston can feel the effect. She has had to deal with the
cramped conditions in the women's module of the Boulder County Jail
since she entered it three months ago after violating terms of her
probation, for offenses including felony theft.

It's her second trip to the 15-year-old Boulder jail. During her first
stint six months ago, there was one holding area for women. Now there
are two.

First-time inmates, not used to the shock of jail, are mixed in with
repeat offenders who have calmly accepted their situations.

"I'm only sitting here waiting to get into prison," said Preston,
dressed in blue jail garb.

Women who have mental problems or are considered maximum security
risks are mixed with women who are in jail for lesser crimes.

"They've got maximum in with minimum people and minimum in with
maximum - a lot of different attitudes," said inmate Stephanie Ryno,
31, of Boulder, who wears a white shirt instead of blue signifying
that she is a "trusty," on good behavior. Ryno is in jail for several
charges, including driving without insurance or valid license and
warrants for failing to appear in court for forgery, child abuse,
drunken driving and larceny charges.

Stress

The constant surge of women also causes jailers to reposition inmates
to make holding cells available. Recently, Preston said, inmates were
asked to move at 1 a.m.

"We always have to move around rooms," said Preston, 24, who is from
Boulder and is the mother of two children. "People were pissed.
Officers were pissed, and people were yelling."

The women's module of the jail has 16 cells, each built to hold one
prisoner. But because of overcrowding, all but three rooms are
double-bunked. Seven-foot-long blue plastic beds, known as "boats,"
are used to triple-up rooms when needed.

Gina Hayden, originally from Virginia, said she is tired of the stress
overcrowding has created. Suffering from a terminal illness, Hayden
said, she's worried about germs and mental strain that she blames on
new inmates, who often cry themselves to sleep.

"It's noisy," said Hayden, 34, in jail for failing to comply with her
court-ordered sentence for forging checks. "We're reminded of the
stress again when new people come in. We try and help them, but it
stresses us."

On the "dark side," as inmates call the women's module - lined by
cinder-block walls that are trimmed with pink paint - there are no
windows or freedom to move around.

That is why many of the 28 women in the module this week feel some
envy toward 19 lesser-risk inmates who have been put into an overflow
area or dormitory.

The dorm had been home to inmates who were part of the county's
work-release program. Located in the west wing of the jail, it is not
as tightly secured as the women's module and allows inmates more room
to move around.

It also comes with certain advantages, prisoners say, like toilets in
a bathroom instead of within a shared cell.

But Mary Mahieu, 26, of Longmont, jailed since Oct. 10 for failure to
comply with probation for drug and theft offenses, said the dorm isn't
as comfortable as many in the main jail area think.

"I really didn't like it over here at first," she said.

Mahieu said it's hard to sleep in the dorm, where no walls separate
bunks and women often talk late into the night. Because many of the
jail programs are in more secure areas, inmates in the dorm have
reduced access to drug and alcohol treatment programs, church or Bible
study.

Jail officials said bringing inmates from the dorm to the programs
requires passing through several levels of security over and over -
something that takes up time for an overburdened staff.

"The staffing the way we are makes it extremely difficult to do it in
a timely way," Lt. Ed Torres said.

The dorm women also complain about a lack of privacy, communal
bathrooms and a lack of outdoor recreation, which women in the main
jail area receive.

Arguments

In cramped quarters, arguments often erupt over the use of the
phone.

"We all want to say good-bye to our kids," said Trina Young, 33,
serving one year in jail for child abuse charges and contempt of court
charges.

Sheriff George Epp said he doesn't know why the jail's previous
average women's count of 30 has risen 67 percent. He said the most
common crime linking many of the women inmates are drug offenses. Many
also are in for child abuse or fraud, he said.

The lagging economy probably plays a part in the rising number of
women, Epp said.

"If you have a good job, you're not stealing," he said. "If you're
unemployed, the chances are greater you might be stealing."

Ken Kerle, managing editor of the American Jail Association's American
Jail magazine, agreed. But he had two other theories on why the number
of women in the nation's jails surged from 35,000 to 70,000 in the
1990s and keeps increasing.

More women are using drugs, he said.

"Drugs in the'70s,'80s became more popular, and we've had these
movements, 'Let's decriminalize drugs,' and it's caught on," Kerle
said. "But it's still the war on drugs."

Kerle also said he thinks women's liberation movements have influenced
judges, who had been more lenient toward women offenders. Now, he
said, they give women "equal punishment" when compared to men.

Despite Kerle's estimates, Colorado state prisons aren't showing an
increase in the women's population, which has stayed at 8 percent of
total prison population over the last few years, said Linda Carroll,
spokeswoman at Department of Corrections.

Those numbers make Epp wonder why Boulder County has seen an
increase.

"It's curious, because the number of prisoners that are booked into
the jail have not increased but have been flat really the last two or
three years," Epp said.

Lt. Bruce Haas said the county has even taken male inmates from other
counties facing jail overcrowding problems in exchange for those
counties' acceptance of Boulder's female inmates.

Overcrowding at the jail has caused a judge to release about three
prisoners early each week for the last three weeks.

Contracting halfway houses in Boulder and Longmont to make room for
more women inmates is taking a toll on the county's budget. It costs
$33 for the county to put up work-release prisoners in halfway houses,
and Epp has asked the county commissioners for more money to retain
more beds.

If the jail doesn't see a decrease in its women's population soon, Epp
said, he will have to consider leasing space in other counties' jails,
which would cost as much as $60 per day per prisoner.

"It's not something we're budgeted for, either," he said. "So we have
to find the money somewhere."