The operation is further complicated by the increasing share of the women who are being held in cases involving violent behavior, said Sgt. Denise Wood, who has worked in the jail for nearly 15 years.
More women need to be segregated from the group because of their involvement in gangs, their roles in high-profile cases or because of prior violent behavior than was the case five years ago, Wood said.
Female inmates last Sunday were moved from H Module, where Bidleman was housed, to E Module, which is split into more secure areas that allow for segregation of inmates.
On Thursday afternoon, eight maximum-security inmates, including a woman charged with second-degree murder, were in the common room of E Module. A woman talked on the phone while a group watched a TV talk show and another woman stirred herself a cup of instant coffee.
When their free time was up, they returned to their cells and a correctional officer at a control board in the center of the room unlocked the doors of minimum-security inmates.
About 40 woman flooded
into the room, most heading straight for the sink to make coffee or getting in line for the phones.
Three women walked into an exercise courtyard with a basketball hoop and sat in a small patch of sunlight that made it over the high walls and onto the concrete.
"In a perfect world, they'd be out all day together," Ghioldi said. "But this is far from a perfect world."
You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.
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