Cheung Mo
22nd July 2008, 00:41
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cook-county-jail-web-jul18,0,3223109.story
In a scathing report released Thursday, federal authorities said that a culture exists at Cook County Jail in which inmates are systematically beaten by guards and medical care is so substandard that some inmates have died.
The Justice Department threatened legal action if steps aren't taken to ensure that inmates' basic constitutional rights aren't routinely violated.
In the 98-page report, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division called the complex violent and pointed to a raft of problems ranging from unsanitary conditions to inadequate mental health care and suicide-prevention measures.
At a news conference, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called on the Cook County Board and Sheriff Tom Dart to fix a dangerous jail that is "woefully inadequate."
Dart, who is responsible for the jail, blasted the findings, saying he felt betrayed after his office fully cooperated with the probe, only to have the report ignore their reform efforts.
"The thing that I found so disturbing was that I welcomed them in here," Dart said in an interview at his office at the West Side jail. "I gave them access to everything with the hope that they would be yet another set of eyes, that they'd come up with a couple of suggestions about how I could do things better.
It's incredible how people realise how fucked up that place really is.
In a scathing report released Thursday, federal authorities said that a culture exists at Cook County Jail in which inmates are systematically beaten by guards and medical care is so substandard that some inmates have died.
The Justice Department threatened legal action if steps aren't taken to ensure that inmates' basic constitutional rights aren't routinely violated.
In the 98-page report, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division called the complex violent and pointed to a raft of problems ranging from unsanitary conditions to inadequate mental health care and suicide-prevention measures.
At a news conference, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called on the Cook County Board and Sheriff Tom Dart to fix a dangerous jail that is "woefully inadequate."
Dart, who is responsible for the jail, blasted the findings, saying he felt betrayed after his office fully cooperated with the probe, only to have the report ignore their reform efforts.
"The thing that I found so disturbing was that I welcomed them in here," Dart said in an interview at his office at the West Side jail. "I gave them access to everything with the hope that they would be yet another set of eyes, that they'd come up with a couple of suggestions about how I could do things better.
It's incredible how people realise how fucked up that place really is.