The utter inadequacy of the Cook County Jail has long been realized by thoughtful people. The Chicago Community Trust, by request of the Board of County Commissioners, has made a Cook County Jail Survey and has organized a committee of representative Chicago citizens for the purpose of abolishing the old Cook County Jail and removing the scandal which has disgraced Cook County for more than fifty years.
In 1919, after the State Board of Public Charities had labored fifty years to reform the county jails, the State Department of Public Welfare made a study of the county jails of Illinois. This report contained the following statement:
“Illinois has 20 county jails which maybe classified as good; 19 as fair; 41 as very poor or bad; 21 as unfit for use. Except for the high standard of cleanliness of the women’s department, it is difficult to find any good points about the Cook County Jail.... It is recognized as an insanitary, dark, overcrowded institution that is a disgrace to Cook County.... They [the prisoners] are locked in their cells from 11.30 in the morning to 3.30 in the afternoon. There are two or three men in each small cell (six by nine feet and eight feet high). It is impossible to distribute the men according to their habits of cleanliness or decency. Twenty hours out of each twenty-four must be spent locked in the insanitary, dirty, crowded cell. All meals are served to the men in their cells. The time for exercise, 9.30-11.30 A. M. and 3.30-5.30 P. M., they stand or walk around or sit down on the floor of the ‘bull pen’ or ‘exercise corridor.’ In the ‘old jail’ this ‘pen’ includes all the floor space of the cell house not occupied by the cell block. It is a big room swarming with men. In the departments of the ‘new’ it is the corridor into which the cells open. The cells are kept locked during the four exercise hours. There are no seats or benches in the ‘bull pens.’ In all departments the pens are crowded during the four ‘exercise’ hours.... Cook County does not furnish jail clothes for prisoners. They have access to laundry tubs once a week. Prisoners wash their own clothes.... Those who do not [have changes of clothing] manage the best way they can. They may wash their clothes, dry them, and put them on again; they may also borrow from cell mates.... There are only 14 shower baths, exclusive of the receiving ward, for all the men prisoners ... (population on the day of inspection, 546).