Some Cook County commissioners are pushing for an independent review of the Cook County Jail, citing concerns about deaths, medical care and inadequate supervision.
A resolution calling for the review is scheduled for a vote Tuesday in the board’s Health and Hospitals Committee.
Advocates, elected officials and faith leaders say the 2023 death toll — the deadliest year at the jail in decades — underscores the need for third-party oversight.
In 2023, 18 people died at the jail, many from drug overdoses tied to delays in medical care, according to an Injustice Watch investigation.
“I’m sponsoring the resolution because I’m concerned,” said Commissioner Tara Stamps. “We know that the detainees walked in alive and were unalive for whatever reason, and that one death is too many. And the numbers that we are looking at, in my opinion, require an outside review.”
Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, said such a review is standard in many large U.S. cities.
“New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Denver, San Diego, just to name a few, have some form of independent oversight over the jail facilities in that jurisdiction. So Chicago is unusual in not having it,” said Deitch.
Cook County Jail has had third-party oversight before.
Overcrowding and inadequate staffing led to federal court oversight of the jail complex on the Southwest Side in 1974.
In 2010, the jail entered into a new federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, following a 2008 report that gave the jail failing marks for the safety of inmates, medical care, sanitary conditions, fire safety and guards’ use of excessive force.
A federal judge ended that oversight in 2017 after ruling the jail had met reform requirements.
Stamps said she wants to bring back third-party oversight to the jail, though she added “the resolution does not accuse any individual, employee, office, or agency of wrongdoing, nor does it presume that the review will find any.”
“The purpose is really just to establish reliable facts, identify any systemic concern and recognize practices that are working, and recommend improvements where they are warranted,” Stamps said.
Since 2023, deaths at the jail have trended downward, data shows. A spokesperson for the Cook County sheriff’s office said the majority of those deaths have been due to natural causes from medical issues or drugs.
“We have embraced new technologies, such as mail scanners, to stop the introduction of drug-soaked paper,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We have added additional correctional staff to screen incoming mail and increase searches of the jail living units. We implemented drug testing to identify individuals in custody under the influence of drugs and promptly investigate individuals that are introducing illegal drugs and contraband into the jail.”
Rebecca Levin, a former senior adviser with the sheriff’s office, said she was shocked to learn more people died in the jail in 2023 than in 2020, at the onset of the pandemic. Even now, Levin said that 2023 spike warrants a third-party review.
“We don’t know when the next spike is going to happen,” she said. “So having independent oversight of the conditions around health and safety in the jail is something that can help us on a more permanent, ongoing basis.”
The board’s resolution calls for a single independent review of the jail. But Stamps said it’s not a “one-and-done deal.”
“This is the beginning of trying to create an ecosystem of care and compassion for the least of these detainees, which are often Black and brown men and women who find themselves in the care and custody of Cook County Jail,” she added.
Deitch agrees lasting oversight is critical.
“The problems inside any jail, any prison system, any place of detention are chronic, meaning there are always going to be issues, and people inside are always going to be vulnerable,” she said.
“For that reason, we need to have ongoing, permanent, independent oversight of these places of detention. Otherwise, you see backsliding.”
A resolution calling for a review is scheduled for a vote Tuesday in the Health and Hospitals Committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Advocates, elected officials and faith leaders say a historic 2023 death toll underscores the need for third-party oversight.
A resolution calling for a review is scheduled for a vote Tuesday in the Health and Hospitals Committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Advocates, elected officials and faith leaders say a historic 2023 death toll underscores the need for third-party oversight.
