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| Cook County Sheriff to Video Elite Jail Officers |
| By Chicago Sun-Times |
| Published: 03/24/2003 |
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Sheriff Michael Sheahan said last week he would start videotaping incidents every time an elite group of Cook County Jail officers at the focus of alleged past beatings are called on to deal with inmates. The sheriff spoke at a Cook County Board hearing. Jail watchdog groups and former inmates and their family members also talked about alleged jail beatings in 1999 and 2000. Sheahan also said that in the next several months cameras would be installed in the maximum security sections where the beatings allegedly occurred. 'Cameras would really allow us to review incidents, it cuts out the, 'he said, she said,' '' Sheahan said. 'I would like to see both [portable cameras] and secure cameras on a wall.'' During the daylong series of hearings, commissioners were told by Sheahan and others including members of the John Howard Association, a jail watchdog group, that severe jail crowding had created a dangerous situation. Even though the jail only has 10,000 beds, it houses about 11,200 daily. Much of the problem was pinned on state officials who have clamped down on parole violators and required them to stay in the jail. Other reasons for the crowding include the long periods, sometimes up to five years, before inmates go to trial, said James Coldren Jr., John Howard president. 'Every time [officers] walk into their job they are in crisis mode,'' said Coldren. 'I do not believe there is willful beating going on in the jail . . . the crowding relates to stress, frustration going on every day.'' But during the meeting, about a dozen people, some who said they had been incarcerated at the jail, said they believe inmates are routinely beaten. They called for an independent investigation into jail conditions. 'Our thing is we want our people to be dealt with as human beings,'' said Paul Mckinley, who said he had been beaten in the jail. |
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