As Douglas County commissioners consider expanding the county jail, the growing number of female inmates is causing problems in the current jail.

In 2013, the average daily tally of female inmates was about 20 women per day, according to the annual jail report. The following year, that number climbed to 31 women in jail per day — a jump of more than 50 percent — according to an early draft of the 2014 year-end jail report. There are 28 beds in the female housing unit, and a count of women in custody Friday showed 29 women on the inmate roster.

County commissioners began considering expanding the jail last year in response to the overall increase in inmates, especially noticeable in the women’s population. While women are not the only population rising — the men’s daily average went from 118 in 2013 to 140 in 2014 — the number of female inmates is at its highest ever. Until last year, the record number of female inmates on an average day was 22 in 2005. The highest male population was in 2006 at 157 inmates.

The recently increasing number of incarcerated women has been seen across the country, as arrest rates have risen faster for women than for men since the mid- to late 1990s, Kansas University professor of social welfare Margaret Severson said. Douglas County has followed the nationwide trend. In 1995, there were just four women incarcerated on an average day in the county jail, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Steve Lewis said.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said Lawrence’s recent stir of violent crimes contributes to the numbers. Women committed almost half of the nine homicides in Lawrence since July 2013.

“There’s a noticeable difference with the unusual number of homicides committed by women,” Branson said. “It’s a pretty shocking number, but if you look at those cases individually, there’s no underlying themes between them.”

Brittny Adams shot Gary Eden in July 2013, Marci Cully stabbed her boyfriend during a fight Christmas 2013, Sarah Gonzalez McLinn is charged in the death of Harold Sasko in January 2014 and Angelica Kulp is charged in the death of Christine Kaplan in July 2014.

The majority of women’s crimes are not violent, Severson and Branson said. Severson said women are more likely to be incarcerated for property crimes such as theft or burglary, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. In Douglas County, the vast majority of the women in custody are being held for failing to make their court appearances or for violating probation, Branson said.

To cope with the larger female population, sheriff’s deputies at the jail have set up six temporary beds in a room designed for visits. But the problems with overcrowding extend beyond physical space, Lewis said.

Inmates are classified based on the severity of their crimes, incarceration history and behavior, Lewis said. The five classifications — maximum, medium and minimum security, special management and work release — each earn inmates different privileges. Inmates in each classification must be separated from those in others.

“We’ve made efforts to increase the capacity of the jail,” Lewis said, “but the complexity of handling the classifications in one housing unit is difficult.”

While the male population has five “pods,” or housing units, one for each type of classification, there is only one pod for women. That means each of the five classifications, which come with varying freedoms and amounts of out-of-cell time, are housed in one area.

“It’s like a one-room school house and everyone needs to be treated fairly,” Lewis said.

This creates what Lewis calls a “strategic problem” in how to fairly and safely schedule each classification group’s days. Where men housed in the jail’s minimum-security unit get to spend up to seven hours out of their cells per day, female minimum-security inmates are limited to about four hours per day because jailers have to make time for each group.

“It’s really complex. One group comes out while another stays in their cells,” Lewis said. “We try to keep to set schedules,”

County officials have said rising inmate populations and an increased obligation to provide mental health services will require a jail expansion within three years. In November, County Administrator Craig Weinaug gave an early estimate that an expansion could cost between $20 million and $30 million.