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An inmate booked into the Cook County Jail in May says he and about 50 other inmates were shuttled from cell block to cell block, and never given individual cells during a four-day period in mid-May. The complaint, filed in US District Court, is a class action suit that claims jail guards created "ghost cells" within the records to make it look like they were in real cells.
The suit, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, was brought by Gregory E. Kulis & Associates, Ltd. and the Uptown People's Law Center on behalf of Marcus Malewski, a pre-trial detainee who was allegedly kept in the Cook County Jail's holding areas between May 12 and May 16 of this year.
Malewski was allegedly not fed and did not have access to a shower or a toilet for most of the time he was in a holding pen as a pre-trial detainee, according to the complaint. The suit also alleges Malewski, as well as 50 other pre-trial detainees, had to sleep on the floor because beds were not made available to them.
“Marcus was even denied access to a toilet," said Greg Kulis, one of the attorneys representing Malewski. "As a result, he was forced to urinate on himself, and then left to sit in his urine soaked clothing for more than a day before he was finally allowed to take a shower. This sort of treatment should never be allowed in a civilized society.”
Hours Later.
Cook County Jail has made changes to their boot camp program. Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart held a news conference Thursday, June 12 on the improvements to the Vocational Rehabilitation Impact Center (VRIC). Detainees sentenced to VRIC work on manual labor projects as an alternative to prison. The program is broken down into two phases.
Phase one is a four-month residency program where detainees not only work and live at the camp but also take classes. The second phase is an eight-month post-release which serves as a probation period where participants who do not have verified employment or schooling outside of VRIC must report to the facility to work various supervised duties three days a week.
Some of the manual projects include landscaping the exterior of Cook County Jail, maintenance work, cleaning jail transportation vehicles, and working with Chicago Animal Care and Control. The progam oversees more than 100 detainees.
