Addressing Mass Incarceration in Cook County, Illinois

Chicago’s Cook County Jail is the largest single-site jail in the United States, responsible for approximately 10,000-12,000 people awaiting trial or transportation to prison. Cook County Jail was placed under supervision by the United States Department of Justice in 2007 for alleged civil rights abuses of the jail’s population, which it was released from in 2017. Approximately 30-35% of the Jail’s population suffers from a severe mental illness. Most people in Cook County Jail are poor, unable to post bail, and forced to reside in Cook County Jail until their trial, which can take 62 days on average. Approximately 85% of people housed in Cook County Jail are African-American or Hispanic. Since 2007, under the leadership of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, the Jail has pursued a number of reforms to improve the quality-of-life of its residents and reduce the number of people entering the jail. Cook County Jail has implemented mandatory mental health screenings when people first enter the jail, Medicaid enrollment for each person upon discharge, and individual and group counseling as resources allow, among many other policies. Since 2013, the overall jail population has decreased by 20%, and Sheriff Dart’s reforms have been replicated in jails and prisons across the country. In recognition of the County’s work, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Cook County a $1.85 million grant in 2017 to further reduce the jail’s population and expand upon the jail’s rehabilitative initiatives.

However, there are several reasons that existing efforts to improve the jail and reduce its population are inadequate:

1. Lack of Collaboration among key criminal justice stakeholders in Illinois and Cook County

Approximately 10 institutions are involved in criminal justice policy and administration in Cook County, including: the judiciary and the Office of the Chief Judge; the Cook County Commissioners; the Clerk of the Court; the Chicago Police Department; the Illinois State Legislature and Governor’s Office; the Mayor of Chicago; the State’s Attorney; the Public Defender’s Office; the Office the Cook County Sheriff; and the Cook County Health & Hospitals System. In an interview in October 2013, the Executive Director of the Justice Advisory Council for Cook County noted that each of these institutions are autonomous, with no legal mandate to cooperate in any capacity. Additionally, in interviews with the Chicago Magazine and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Sheriff Dart has indicated that he has had no communication, or a strained relationship, with Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Cook County Commissioners, and the Cook County judiciary. If not addressed, lack of formal communication and collaboration among these stakeholders renders criminal justice reform a diffuse, piecemeal, and largely ineffective effort.

2. Pre-Trial Detention and Unaffordable Bond Disrupt Communities and Increases Recidivism

People in Cook County Jail, although legally innocent, spend, on average, 62 days in the Jail before they reach trial. In some cases, pretrial defendants will spend years in Cook County Jail. Bond amounts are often unaffordable for mostly poor defendants. On average, people in jail have a poverty-level median annual income of $15,109, and are often expected to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000 in bail to avoid pretrial detention.  In 2016, 36,180 pretrial defendants were detained in Cook County Jail unnecessarily. Nationally, in 2009, 34% of defendants were detained because they were unable to post money bail. Unnecessary detention in Cook County Jail can disrupt families and cause people to lose jobs or housing. Studies show that without unaffordable money bail, defendants could be released from jail without any corresponding increase in crime or decrease in the number of people who attend their court date.

3. Lack of Community Mental Health-Care Options

Deinstitutionalization of state-run mental health facilities and severe cuts for community mental healthcare services have driven large increases in the number of mentally ill and poor people residing in Cook County Jail. Between 2009 and 2012, Illinois cut $133.7 million in funding from mental health services. Since 2009, the state and city of Chicago have closed two inpatient facilities, six Chicago mental health clinics, and several community mental health agencies throughout the state. Cook County Jail has officially become the largest mental health provider in the state of Illinois: of approximately 76,000 people admitted to Cook County Jail in 2012, over 45,000 had a severe mental illness. Accordingly, to care for this population, the Illinois Department of Corrections’ budget has expanded by $110 million in the past five years. Mental healthcare through the Cook County and Illinois correctional system is unsustainable and unjust toward millions of people in desperate need of quality, affordable healthcare services.