- Kevin Tanaka/For Sun-Times Media
- Sheriff Tom Dart says the Cook County jail population could be reduced by as much as a third without any threat to public safety.
Cook County sheriff Tom Dart is the local jailer, the guy responsible for overseeing nearly 10,000 inmates deemed unfit to go free by prosecutors and judges.
He said that’s especially true at the county jail, where most inmates haven’t yet been tried for the crimes they’re accused of.
Without calling out Rahm Emanuel directly, Dart also criticized the mayor’s decision to shutter mental health clinics. “That’s called thoughtless,” Dart said.
Ricky Whitehead and Omar Williams say their cells were so cold during stretches of last winter that ice and frost formed on the walls and their shampoo froze in its bottles. Jail staff did nothing except provide a couple of extra blankets, according to the suit.
In February attorneys at Northwestern law school filed a suit alleging that jail inmates suffered “sadistic” treatment and routine abuse at the hands of jail guards.
The jail has been under court decrees for most of the last 40 years because of civil rights violations. At different points, inmates have been forced to sleep on cell floors, and exposed to violence and unsanitary conditions, including rat infestation and bacteria. Fights—some involving shanks—break out regularly.
