COEUR d'ALENE - Jailed women in Kootenai County now have the chance to work while behind bars, an opportunity long afforded only to male inmates.

Richard Eppink, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, told The Press Monday that his organization received a complaint in December from a woman who was about to report to the jail to serve a short sentence. While preparing to do her time, she learned that there was a program for men at the jail that allowed them to become inmate workers.

"But there was no program at all of that kind for women," Eppink said. "We communicated with the county and alerted them that providing these kinds of privileges to one gender and not the other was a serious constitutional problem."

Kootenai County Sheriff's Office Capt. John Holecek told The Press Tuesday that the jail offers an inmate worker program to "lower custody" inmates. The program allows those inmates to work cleaning the facility, doing laundry and preparing meals.

Individuals that participate in the program receive additional privileges while they are incarcerated.

"Instead of visitation over an electronic monitor similar to Skype, they get to use our old visiting booths with glass between them and phones to communicate," Holecek said. "So it's more of a real face-to-face type of visit."

He added that the inmates involved in the program also get to watch a wider variety of television channels and have more access to food because of their work in the kitchen.

In 1998, the jail attempted to allow female inmates into the program. But Holecek said it didn't work because there was no way to keep male and female inmates separated.

"They'd end up in a bathroom or something together and, for obvious reasons, that just caused problems we couldn't have in a jail," Holecek said. "It's something we've considered (trying again) over the years. But we've never done it because of the logistics."

That changed Dec. 22 when Eppink - along with a Seattle-based women's rights organization called Legal Voice - brought the female inmate's complaint to the county through its insurer, the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program.

Once it was confirmed by ICRMP that the jail did not have a female worker program, Sheriff Ben Wolfinger was included in a January phone call to further discuss the issue. According to Eppink, the sheriff then tasked personnel at the jail with making both physical and policy changes.

"Within just a few weeks they had an inmate program open again for women at the jail," Eppink said.

If female inmates are accepted into the program, Holecek said they will work in the laundry room and male participants will continue to clean and prepare meals.

"There were a few things we had to change as far as how we do business," Holecek said. "But the bottom line is we were able to make it work. We were able to isolate them enough to not have the males and females mix."

Eppink said his organization was pleased with the speed at which the changes were implemented, and that the issue did not require litigation or further mediation.

"This is a good example of how things should work, at least when it comes to the ACLU and sheriff's offices in counties working together," Eppink said.

He added that, in light of the Kootenai County complaint, ACLU Idaho has begun a statewide investigation to determine whether the issue exists at any other jails.

"That statewide investigation may result in some additional changes that need to be made," Eppink said.