COOK COUNTY, IL - Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan announced Sunday the appointment of Salvador "Tony" Godinez, chief of staff for the Illinois Department of Corrections, as the new executive director of Cook County Jail.

Godinez, 53, who was warden of Stateville Correctional Center in Joliet and held high-level positions at prisons in several other states, is slated to take over in mid-June, Sheahan said.

Godinez said his experience with gangs at prisons in Nevada and Michigan would help him gather intelligence and combat gang culture at the 9,000-inmate jail complex at 26th Street and California Avenue.

"I plan to tackle it one day at a time," he said at a news conference at Sheahan's Daley Center offices. "Getting as much information as possible. ... There are two teams in there, and we have to know who's on our team before we battle any other team."

More than half of the inmates at the jail indicate a gang affiliation at the time they're brought in, said Bill Cunningham, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.

Godinez was last considered for the post in 2003, when he was one of three candidates nominated by the County Board of Corrections. Sheahan chose Callie Baird instead.

Sheahan soon came under fire for appointing Baird, who was not one of the final three. Three of five members on the corrections board sued the sheriff, claiming he broke the state law that specifies the new jail director should be picked from candidates chosen by the panel.

In October 2004, a county judge ruled that Sheahan violated the law and ordered Baird out of the job. Last July, a state appellate court agreed. Baird, former head of the Chicago Police Department's Office of Professional Standards, continued as a special assistant to the sheriff until she accepted a job with the Chicago Housing Authority in November.

In the last year the jail has been beset with problems. Officials believe Randy Rencher, a convicted rapist and accused bank robber, escaped wearing a corrections officer's uniform in June.

In February an inmate escaped by hiding in a truck carrying dirty laundry from the jail, and a day later, six inmates got out, allegedly with the aid of an officer.

"Running Cook County Jail is one of the most challenging jobs in all of law enforcement," Sheahan said. "But Tony has had plenty of tough jobs in the past, and he has performed well."