ATDTDA (1): Cook County jail

[Tim Strzechowski]

"Lord have mercy, last time that happened I ended up in the Cook County jail for a nice long vacation" (p. 24).


Cook County was established on January 15, 1831 by the Illinois State Legislature. Chicago, then an unincorporated settlement with fewer than 60 residents, was designated the county seat. Due to a virtual absence of crime, a county courthouse and jail were not built until 1835. The first jail, located just North of the Chicago River, was a small wooden stockade that resembled a military fortress. Little is known about the structure's size and the inmates that were held there due to a fire that destroyed many of the county's early records.
But it is known that by 1850, the city's growing population and rising crime rate rendered the stockade obsolete. A larger court and jail facility was built just North of what is now 54 W. Hubbard Street. Only offenders awaiting trial for serious crimes were held at the county's Hubbard Street jail. Their trials proceeded quickly at the adjacent courthouse and those who were found guilty were sent to the State prison system to serve their sentence.

However, offenders who were arrested in Chicago for less serious crimes, like public drunkenness, fighting, and disturbing the peace, were not held at the county's jail. Instead, the City of Chicago was responsible for detaining them at the city "Bridewell", (an old English word for a jail used to house inmates on a short term basis). Built in 1852 at Polk and Wells Streets, the Bridewell was located near what was then the city's vice district. Inmates were rarely held there for more than several weeks.

In the subsequent years, the inmate count at the Bridewell grew just as quickly as Chicago's population. In 1871, just months before the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the Polk and Wells site, the Bridewell was moved to a new larger building at 26th and California, and officially renamed the Chicago House of Corrections. In its first year, the new facility's inmate population doubled. An average of 419 inmates were held there each day. Until prison and legal reforms were made in the early years of the 20th Century, juveniles as young as 7 years old were held at the House of Corrections with the general inmate population and female offenders were housed in isolation in the same building. [...]

http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/doc/

http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/doc/html/history.html

http://www.peterbrownconstruction.com/admin/uploads/Cook_County_Jail_Exterior_Front_12-20-01_1.jpg

http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1602/Bogira/Bogira04.jpg

http://www.luc.edu/orgs/mosaic2006/Mosaic/Laurenmosaic/trend%20pics/pelafas%20trend%20pic%201.jpg


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