By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Most women arrested in Hamilton County will no longer have to spend the night in jail awaiting a court hearing, according to a memo sent to police departments Wednesday.

Sheriff Simon Leis, who operates the jail in downtown Cincinnati, said it is crowded and now has room to keep only those women charged with the most serious felony crimes.

Leis has continued to say the county jail was crowded since the day it opened 19 years ago. And the number of women inmates has continued to rise - 28 percent over the past decade.

The new policy, which Leis spokesman Steve Barnett said takes effect today, means women charged with prostitution and drug possession - two of the most common crimes women are arrested for in Cincinnati - will be processed, given a date to return for a court hearing and escorted out of the jail.

That, city officials say, sends a bad message to police officers they are urging to be more proactive, and to residents who call to report neighborhood crime problems - most of which are nuisance crimes.

"It flies in the face of everything we're trying to accomplish in the city,'' Mayor Charlie Luken said Wednesday. "It comes close to being a free pass.''

City and county officials were scheduled to meet this morning to discuss the change in policy. Cincinnati Capt. Paul Humphries, whose vice and drug officers would be among the officers most affected by the new policy, said he hoped the conversation might lead to different solution.

Luken said he didn't yet know what options the city might have for stopping the change. He said city officials would consider what they might do depending on the outcome of the meeting.

"The county is obligated to incarcerate people who deserve it,'' the mayor said. "They can't abdicate that responsibility by saying they don't have any room.''

Who gets a cell

Barnett said Wednesday's memo went to all 44 law enforcement agencies in the county, notifying them of the change. It lists 45 felony charges for which women still will be jailed. Among them: murder, felonious assault, arson, domestic violence, rape and carrying concealed weapons.

It also said the jail would keep any woman who had been a fugitive, indicted, is being held on a parole violation or a juvenile contempt order. Any inmate who gets processed - which includes getting fingerprinted and photographed - then let out cannot be processed and let out again without first going to court on the charges.

The sheriff, who is running unopposed in November for a fifth, four-year term, told the Enquirer in February he wanted a new 1,500-bed jail that would house both men and women. In 2003, the county's average female inmate count hit 271 - 60 more than the number in 1993 and nearly triple the average of 100 in 1985, the year the justice center opened. The male inmate population has swelled, too. And now, the county's four jail facilities, which can house about 2,300 men and women, no longer have spare space for men to be moved around to accommodate the increase in female inmates.

Men and women must be kept apart in jail. Inmates jailed on violent offenses also must be separated from non-violent offenders. And, Leis said, many of the women arrested also need mental health and substance abuse help, both of which also can require special housing.

Leis could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

He has pitched a plan for a new jail several times in his 16 years as sheriff, although he has said he comes up against a declining county budget and elected officials who don't want to make the unpopular commitment to spend taxpayer dollars on jails.

Leis has taken similar steps before.

In 1989, he told judges he would not accept any female misdemeanor offenders. Judges responded by sentencing women to home incarceration whenever possible. Women were put on a waiting list and summoned to serve their time when the jail had space. Even then, officials said crowding had been an issue for years.

The wrong message

Jurisdictions across the country are seeing more female inmates. Experts attribute that rise to more mandatory-arrest laws for domestic violence as well as an increase in theft and shoplifting, crimes that increase with economic downturns.

News of the Hamilton County policy was a surprise to many in the county Wednesday afternoon. Rick Patterson, chief in Fairfax, had not yet seen the notice.

"I'm going to have to call down there and see what's going on,'' he said.

In his village, it's relatively uncommon for officers to arrest women. But in Cincinnati, prostitution is one of the most common annoyances residents call City Hall to complain about, Councilman David Pepper said. And in turn, he said, city officials have urged officers to go out and make more prostitution arrests.

He said Capt. Vince Demasi has been pleading with county officials for several weeks to come up with another solution.

"You couldn't do something worse to hurt cop morale,'' Pepper said. "And you couldn't send a worse message to the neighborhoods.''

In Westwood, Mary Kuhl, co-founder of Westwood Concern, called the jail policy disturbing.

"It's easy to say some of those things are victimless crimes or they have no impact,'' she said, "until your kids walk to school past used condoms.''

Email jprendergast@enquirer.com