More women are finding their way into DeKalb County Jail than usual.

“This year and the last couple of years, we’ve been running about 15 percent female that have come through the jail,” Lt. Joyce Klein said. “I would expect we’re going to see something like that for 2002.”

That number is higher than the usual percentage.

“For several years it was 10 to 11 percent. Just in the last couple years it has gone up,” Klein said. “I know Dwight has been filled the last few years and has an overflow.”

DeKalb County Jail’s female population is housed in the F and G blocks, out of a total of 12 cells.

In addition to being sentenced to “hard time,” inmates at the jail can participate in a work-release program.

Klein said the male and female inmates acted pretty much the same. They recently had a problem with one of the female inmates who threatened the other female inmates.

“When we have problems with the men, we can move them to a different cell block. But with the women, we don’t have another cell block. We don’t have those options.”

In the past, Dwight allowed women to wear their own clothes and even makeup, Klein said.

“We don’t allow that,” Klein said.

Of course, some considerations must be made for female inmates.

“The only difference is that sometimes we will run into pregnant inmates,” Klein said.

They have more medical needs, like pre-natal vitamins and higher-calorie food Klein said.

There is a problem with the deputies themselves within the jail.

“We try to stick with women deputies with women inmates,” Klein said. She thought female deputies can deal more with male inmates than male deputies can deal with female inmates.

“We can pretty much have a female officer on every shift,” Klein said.