Cook County Jail’s deadliest year in decades reveals repeated lapses and failed oversight
Cook County Jail’s deadliest year in decades reveals repeated lapses and failed oversight
Last year was the deadliest at the jail in decades. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart blames drugs being smuggled in.
[Sheriff] Dart’s spokesperson said the “primary driver” for the record spike in deaths was a sudden influx of paper laced with fentanyl and other drugs that was smuggled into the jail in the first half of last year.
Indeed, drug overdose was the cause of death for eight detainees in 2023, followed by six from natural causes (including Colon), three homicides, and one suicide, according to records from the Cook County medical examiner.
Deaths and overdoses at the jail plummeted after Dart severely restricted access to paper last April, going so far as to block defense attorneys from bringing paper into the jail. As of this week, there had been no deaths at the jail in 2024, his spokesperson said. The jail’s average daily population has also dropped significantly following the abolition of cash bail in Illinois.
But even in some overdose deaths, Injustice Watch found potential policy violations and lack of oversight that may have dangerously increased the jail’s reaction time to offer medical assistance, and advocates and experts say Injustice Watch’s findings point to longstanding problems at the jail that run deeper than drug-laced paper.