{"id":3669,"date":"2020-11-20T22:49:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T22:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagocouncil.org\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2020-11-20T22:49:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T22:49:57","slug":"pandemic-rages-cook-county-jail-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chicagocouncil.org\/staging\/1601\/pandemic-rages-cook-county-jail-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"As the Pandemic Rages, the Cook County Jail Population Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we embark on the \u2018<\/strong>third-wave<\/strong><\/a>\u2019 of the pandemic in the United States, we have tragically learned many things. First and importantly, we have learned that the best and only truly effective way to prevent the spread of this airborne virus is by physically distancing ourselves from others. We have also confirmed what we already knew: that social distancing is <\/strong>fundamentally impossible<\/strong><\/a> in jails and prisons without significant, consistent, and pointed decarceration.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sheriff Dart was sued earlier this year for his failure to respond to the unique risks the virus posed to those forced to live in the jail during the pandemic, the lawsuit (Mays et al. v. Dart<\/a>) confirmed that conditions at Cook County Jail were, in fact, dire at the beginning of the pandemic. People detained and jail staff alike\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0insufficient access to soap, hand sanitizer, and face masks, and\u00a0no regular sanitizing<\/a>\u00a0of common surfaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Community-led advocacy, hard work from civil rights lawyers, Public Defenders, and the State\u2019s Attorney, and this eventual litigation finally mitigated some of the spread of COVID-19 by significantly reducing the jail population \u2013 but for the past nine months, advocates in the city<\/a> and across the country<\/a> have continually warned about what would inevitably happen when the jail population rose again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 23, 2020, Chicago Appleseed published a blog post entitled, \u201cWe Should Not Declare Victory Prematurely: Fight Against COVID-19 at Cook County Jail is Far From Over<\/em><\/a>,\u201d after Sheriff Tom Dart told the Cook County Board of Commissioners, at a budget hearing<\/a>, that he was responsive to the needs of people living in the Jail on \u201cday one<\/a>\u201d of the COVID-19 pandemic; that same week, he told the Chicago Tribune<\/em> that he responded in the \u201cquickest and most massive way<\/a>.\u201d We know this to be untrue because, as the Judge in the Federal Lawsuit stated<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permit[ting] the Sheriff to lift measures [would] thereby again place the health of detained persons at serious risk. That risk cannot be discounted based on the Sheriff\u2019s assurances alone. Again, <\/em>a number of the measures he took were instituted only after<\/em><\/a> the Court\u2019s TRO or preliminary injunction.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Our <\/strong>concern<\/strong><\/a> with Dart\u2019s premature declaration of victory was, unfortunately, warranted. Today, the Cook County Jail population is significantly higher than it was in the Spring, with <\/strong>5,511<\/strong><\/a> people inside. On November 16, 2020, 85-year-old <\/strong>Harold Graszer<\/strong><\/a> died while awaiting trial; he was the eighth person known to have died from COVID-19 complications while in the custody of the Sheriff, and the first to die in over 7 months, since William Sobczyk<\/a> on May 6, 2020. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior Policy Analyst & Staff Attorney for Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, Sarah Staudt<\/a>, examined Sheriff\u2019s Dart\u2019s jail roster data (obtained through a FOIA request) and found that as of October 31, approximately 1,008 people were incarcerated for low-level (non-forcible, not firearm-related) charges like Narcotics, Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle, DUI, and Retail Theft\u2013over 220 for Narcotics or Cannabis only, and more than 40 were charged with Retail Theft alone. Around 98 people whose highest charges were Class 4 or below had already served at least 6 months in the Jail and there are at least 328 people on house arrest (which also gets day-for-day credit for time-served before trial) in that same situation. The vast majority of Class 4 felonies are given either probation or a 1-year term in prison (which translates to 6 months of actual<\/em> prison time). These individuals have likely already served more time in custody than they will if they are ultimately convicted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the Cook County Chief Judge implemented <\/strong>General Order 18.8<\/strong><\/a> in 2017, Cook County\u2019s average jail population has declined by about 16%, while at the same time, <\/strong>overall crime<\/strong><\/a> has continued to decline. Still, Cook County Sheriff\u2019s data showed that as of October 31, 2020, 1,423 people were in the Jail only <\/em>because they couldn\u2019t afford to pay the bond amount set by a judge. Cook County Court <\/strong>rules<\/strong><\/a> state that judges are required to consider ability to pay in making these decisions, but over 590 of these people needed to post $10,000 or less to bail out and over 130 people needed to post $1,000 or less. Of those really<\/em> low bonds, approximately 65 people were charged with non-forcible, non-gun related crimes, and were in jail solely<\/em> because they didn\u2019t have access to $1,000 or less.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the pandemic rages on and the jail population continues to grow, so too does our level of concern that some of the lessons we learned early-on have been lost somewhere along the way. When the pandemic began, people in Cook County Jail were made to sleep in beds that were only two or three feet apart, with dozens sharing a single room<\/a> until the population was finally reduced\u2013we are now back to square one. Decarceration has proven safe and effective<\/a>, with over 99% of people<\/a> free of any new \u201cviolent\u201d charges and over 80% remaining totally \u201ccharge-free while their cases were pending\u201d between October 2017 and December 2018. It is absolutely essential that every Cook County and City of Chicago official does everything in their power to reduce the population of the Cook County Jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Visit <\/em>Chicago Community Bond Fund<\/em><\/a> for more information about how to call on your Cook County elected officials to take action to drastically reduce the jail population: <\/em>https:\/\/chicagobond.org\/2020\/11\/17\/eighth-person-dies-of-covid-19-while-in-the-custody-of-cook-county-jail\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we embark on the \u2018third-wave\u2019 of the pandemic in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[96,95],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration-for-justice","tag-cook-county-jail","tag-covid-19"],"yoast_head":"\nAs the Pandemic Rages, the Cook County Jail Population Grows - Chicago Council of Lawyers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chicagocouncil.org\/staging\/1601\/pandemic-rages-cook-county-jail-grows\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As the Pandemic Rages, the Cook County Jail Population Grows - 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