The Salt Lake County jail is bursting at the seams.

Faced with the problem of not having enough jail beds, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder during the past few days patched up the problem by releasing 10 women from the jail — women who have consistently violated court orders but are otherwise nonviolent offenders.

Winder's long-term solution is to find more jail beds and eventually reopen the Oxbow Jail, using the facility for alternatives-to-incarceration programs.

The sheriff said Tuesday that he plans to make a formal request to the County Council to provide emergency funding to open up 128 beds at the county jail. In November, he plans to ask the council about Oxbow Jail.

"At some point, something's gotta give," Winder said. "The crime rate is rising in Salt Lake, the population is increasing, but the beds aren't increasing. You don't have to be a statistician to figure out that one."

One woman who was released in the past few days had been booked on charges of simple assault. Two other women were in jail for theft, another three for possession of drug paraphernalia, and six women were incarcerated for either driving on a suspended license, without insurance or reckless driving.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller said city prosecutors are frustrated that the jail continues to release inmates who openly violate court orders over and over again.

"It's extremely frustrating," Miller said. "We are sending people to jail who are refusing to comply with orders of the court and letting them right back out. How do you enforce the court's order when that is happening?"

Chief Deputy Rollin Cook, who oversees the county's corrections division, said he doesn't want to have to release people and violate judges' orders, but it's the only way to regulate the jail population.

In addition, Cook said, the jail has a set standard for who can be released if needed, and it only releases inmates with the lowest level of charges.

The County Council put caps on the types of inmates that can be held at the jail in November 2005, barring jailers from holding any offenders with a class C misdemeanor or class B misdemeanor traffic violation, except for DUI convictions or offenders with a record of domestic violence.

The council is trying to curb the jail population by using alternatives to jail incarceration — options that take low-risk inmates out of the county jail and into treatment programs.

"We want to pressure the (criminal justice system) to use alternatives to incarceration, because that is in the community's best interest," Councilman Jim Bradley said. "It's easy to go out and say, 'Let's build a new jail,' but that doesn't solve the community problems over the long term."