Saturday, July 19, 2008

Part 1 - Pervasive Problems at Cook County Jail

When former State Rep. Tom Dart took office as Cook County Sheriff, he issued a press release full of reform goals.

Here are three ideas I extracted from a Sun-Times article on Dart’s statement:

  • “Faith-based groups to increase mentoring for inmates to reduce recidivism,”

  • "Installation of “a comprehensive video surveillance system at Cook County Jail,” and

  • ”An internal hotline so employees can report suspected corruption?”
Public officials don’t usually spend money on prisoners. Their opinion is usually “they deserve anything they get” and it’s usually backed up by their constituents.

(The rest of the story is here.)

I’ve been reading the Justice Department's letter to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger concerning its Civil Rights Division’s investigation of the Cook County Jail.

Suicides, inappropriate beatings by guards, taunts about future rapes. I’ll quote parts of some of the findings to give you a sense of the inhumanness of the institution.

Since preventing rape in prison was my “social cause” of the 1990’s, let me start there.” (The case below was not on Dart’s watch, by the way.)
”Pedro S. was arrested on a sex charge brought by his niece. While in the intake area three officers who had read the charge began taunting him, yelling threats in Spanish, and asking if he knew what was about to happen to him. [Emphasis added. From what I learned while serving on Tom Johnson’s and Tom Dart’s Prison Reform Committee, typically, sex abusers get sexually assaulted in prison.]

"The officers struck him many times and called him a ‘f------ Mexican‘ …Because the officers threatened to kill Pedro if he said anything about the incident, he did not seek medical attention …released four days later (he) immediately saw a doctor and reported the incident to the Chicago Police Department. Medical records confirm that Pedro’s injuries included a broken rib and damage to his jaw and knee.”
There were five reported cases of sexual assault on the first five months of Dart’s watch, however (page 24).

There are lots of pre-Sheriff Dart abuses cited, but, even though he was undersheriff at the time, I don’t think it’s fair to hold him responsible.

Tomorrow: Cases cited by the federal report after Tom Dart took office as Cook County Sheriff.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog.

3 comments:

Anonymous,  8:48 PM  

He wasn't the Undersheriff ever. He was Chief of Staff.

Cal Skinner 9:37 PM  

My mistake. Sorry.

Anonymous,  2:21 PM  

Dart "SAID" he would do, and hasn't done a thing according to the DOJ report. He was chief of staff for Sheahan all those years and what did he do then? Nothing but kiss the political butt and go with the flow. Just like Sheahan, He lies to the public about his so called reforms with all the usual excuses of a typical jailer, feeds the public with a bunch of smokescreen and mirrors and tries to get the public to focus on his ideas instead of solutions and actions that have been done to correct all the problems. Does he really think that excuse will work anymore especially with the DOJ and Patrick Fitzgerald? Sorry Dart, they're not stupid like you portray the rest of the world to be. Dart was chief of staff when these problems were rediculously out of control yet Dart tries to make it seem like he just got there.
Oh, and by the way, this latest smokescreen of an excuse will not be controlled or heard by the corrupt cook county court system where the "Tied to Everybody for Legal Protection" Cook County Sheriff's Department gets away with just about everything. It's time the connected Sheriff's Ddepartments lawyers that get rich off of all these lawsuits arising out of the jail are also held accountable. They have a responsibility also to the taxpayers of this county and consistantly abuse the county legal system to get rich. Yes, Crime does pay. It pays millions to those who are responsible for the crime and neglet of the jail system. They like it this way. Open your eyes!

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