Cook County Jail

Jail Layout

Interview with Rachel, Jason, Kat, JM Advice, Brian, DavidP, keke, Teabag, Crystal, Edward, isaac, Lucky, Kathy, Lisa, Apache, Janet, Ron and Ryan


JM: How many different blocks were there?
Rachel: 6
Jason: 2
Kat: I don't know
JM Advice: The cell blocks are numbered based on when they were built.
Brian: I'm not sure about all of them - I didn't spend too much time there.
DavidP: I'm not sure, but I think there were 12 for women and men total. I know there are a couple of buildings that were maximum security for men, a couple for women, about four or five regular ones for men and women, and then a couple of these medical-type wards or buildings that I was in.
keke: 16
Teabag: The Department of Corrections complex consists of 11 separate Divisions/units.
Crystal: Cook County is the largest jail in the country with 9,000-11,000 inmates there on any one day. There are 11 divisions. The Cook County Jail web site describes each division which may hold 500 to 1500 or so inmates each. There are some dormitories for min security, and high security almost supermax divisions and Cermak which house the medical and mental health infirmiries each with about 10-30 inmates per unit.
Edward: in mine it was 4 dorms with differant decks
isaac: dont know alot
Lucky: I only know a few in cook county jail. Division 1 is max, Division 2 is minimum, Division 4 females, Division 5 and 6 are medium, Division 9 is max, Division 10 is max, Division 11 is medium.
Kathy: Hundreds
Lisa: dont kno
Apache: 5 houses 5 tiers in each
Janet: FOR THE WOMEN THERE IS OR SHOULD I SAY WAS BECAUSE I HEARD ITS DIFFERENT NOW BOT THERE WAS DIVISION 3,4,AND17 THE DRUG UNIT.
Ron: 12 blocks
Ryan: I think Cook County has 9 divisions with aprox. 20 blocks ineach.

JM: Did they have names? If so, what were they?
Rachel: i dont know
Jason: Could not tell...I have a Med problem so I was moved to a Med unit after 24 hours of hell with about 250 other men and in the group maybe 4 other white people and the rest black or haspnic. I WANT TO MAKE IT VERY CLEAR I AM NOT A PERSON THAT SEE`S COLOR, I HAVE FRIENDS FROM EVERY WALK OF LIFE.
JM Advice: There are no fancy names at Cook County Jail, simply cell block 1, block 2, etc.
Brian: Not sure.
DavidP: Yes, they're numbered, like Building 3 or Building 4.
keke: k1,p2,m1 stuff like that
Teabag: Division 1 (Max) Division 2 (Minimum) Division 3 (Female) Division 4 (Female) Division 5 (Medium) Division 6 (Medium) Division 8 (Minimum) Hospital Unit and Drug Unit Division 9 (Max) Division 10 (Max) Division 11 (Super Max) Division 14 (Minimum) Drug Unit
Crystal: Division 1-11 and Cermak (infirmary) is part of Division 8.
Edward: mine was div 1 dorm 1 c deck, it was a,b,c,d,e,f,g all in dorm 1.same with dorm 2 and 3 and 4
isaac: dont know
Lucky: Div 1, 9, 10 are as close to hell as you can get on earth.
Kathy: Don't know.
Lisa: dont kno
Apache: e house b west b east i house h house g dorm f house
Janet: LIKE P1,JI,CABBAGE PATCH(UNDER 21)K1 (THE HOLE)
Ryan: Yes 2j 3b 3c 3d 3e etc.......

JM: Which inmates were housed in the different blocks?
Jason: Don`t know..
Kat: They did call them by numbers
JM Advice: The different blocks are dedicated to different levels of inmates (what security level you are assigned). You do not have any say in your assigned cell block, so there's not much point in asking. The Cook County Jail website has a good overview of the different cell blocks and which inmates are housed there. At any given time the jail has 9,000 inmates so figuring out which housing unit you may end up in can be difficult.
Brian: Um, you know, actually, the interesting thing is before I went to court, they did this thing, like I told you, where they give you these uniforms, and they actually did a strip search where they make you strip naked and make sure you weren't bringing any weapons into the jail. That took a long time, actually, because they had to call your name, and put you through this assembly line kind of thing, and then, after I was released, they put us through a health check, where they do various things, like they did an STD checkup on our genitals, they took our weight, our height, and just a variety of...you know, it's almost like a physical. I didn't understand why they were doing this, because I was pretty much planning on getting out that day, but I guess once you're state property, they want to keep track of anyone that's been through county jails for reference. That's actually why it took such a long time. They went through all that, even though I had a more minor offense, they still make you go through everything.
DavidP: If you have to have medical surveillance, then you go in one of these buildings that I was in. I'm not certain that there were 12, but there were quite a bit, and it was somewhere around there.
keke: the no bonds are housed downstairs in the female division and the people with bonds are housed upstairs
Teabag: Cook County Department of Corrections houses 14,000+ inmates on any given day. Overcrowding is a serious problem within the jail system.
isaac: min med max
Lucky: 1, 9, 10 houses violent offenders usually murderers.
Kathy: Murderers, rapists, and such
Lisa: dont kno
Apache: all mixed in
Janet: DEPENDING ON THERE TYPE OF CRIME AND AGE.
Ryan: Depend on nature of the offense

JM: What do you remember being the nicest and worst parts about the different blocks?
Jason: Nothing...you have the worst already..Nothing is nice about it in anyway.
Kat: Nothing nice they were all dirty and gross.
Brian: Wasn't there long enough to really see anything nice. I didn't like how crowded it was.
DavidP: First, you want to stay out of the maximum security ones, and then you want to stay out of the general population ones if you can, because more fights happen there - the areas intermingle, they're bigger buildings, and you go out in the yard and there are just more possibilities to have trouble there. If possible, stay out of those. There are minimum security ones that are better, but again, you have no say, so it's not like you can petition to get the better one.
keke: in cook county jail there isnt a nice part
Teabag: Division 11 was the cleanest area i have ever been in when doing time or fighting cases in Cook County Jail.... It was the newest Division in CCDOC (Built in 1995). Originally built to be part of the Illinois Department of Corrections but the plan was scrapped because of community outrage over a prison being built in such a densly populated urban area. Division 11 is a state-of-the-art, 640,000 square-foot, Super Maximum security facility. Consists of a central core surrounded by four housing PODS, Division 11 can house 1,536 male inmates. All activity is controlled and monitored by a touch screen security system.
Crystal: Cermak is cleaner than the rest of the jail, but can be tough in other ways such as food tends to be cold and rules stiffer such as no food commissary.
Edward: the nicest thing i can remmember about c deck was it was clean.we all helped out.one person at a time for showers and windows.the worst thing was some people.these people had no respect for anyone.they were loud,lazy and dirty.c deck was a working deck and some people would just stay up all night and be as load as they wanted even when you asked nicely to be quiet.that used to get me angry and i hated it and these people wouldnt even work.90 percent of the people on c deck worked and 10 did nothing.
isaac: all shit
Lucky: 11 was clean!
Kathy: Nothing
Lisa: n/a
Apache: there all the same what you make of it
Janet: THERE BASICALLY ALL THE SAME,YOUR LOCKED UP.
Ryan: availability of drugs or cigarrettes