United States · IL · Chicago
Cook County Jail
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Gallery
From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).
Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Photo by unknown for Chicago Tribune via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by Chicago Inter Ocean via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by unknown via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by unknown via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Photo by unknown via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Penitentiary in Illinois, US The Cook County Jail, located on 96 acres (39 hectares) in [South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, is operated by the Sheriff of Cook County.[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County_Jail#cite_note-1) It is sometimes referred to as _26th and Cal_ or _Hotel California_, as its address is on California Avenue. A city jail has existed on this site since after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but major County prisoners were not generally collocated here until closure of the old Hubbard Street Criminal Court Building and jail in 1929.[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_County_Jail#cite_note-2) Since then, a 1920s neoclassical and art deco courthouse for the criminal division of the Cook County Circuit Court has operated at the South Lawndale complex.
Background
The Cook County Jail, located on 96 acres (39 hectares) in South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, is operated by the Sheriff of Cook County. It is sometimes referred to as 26th and Cal or Hotel California, as its address is on California Avenue. A city jail has existed on this site since after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but major County prisoners were not generally collocated here until closure of the old Hubbard Street Criminal Court Building and jail in 1929. Since then, a 1920s neoclassical and art deco courthouse for the criminal division of the Cook County Circuit Court has operated at the South Lawndale complex. As of 2017, Cook County operated the third-largest jail system in the United States by inmate population (after the Los Angeles County and New York City jail systems).
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
—
Current population
—
Occupancy
—
Year opened
—
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 3 Jul 2026 · methodology
Facility profile
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
—
Region
IL
Security level
—
Death-row facility
No
Conditions
No conditions summary available yet.
Visiting
No visiting information available.
Mailing
No mailing information available.
Practical info
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
Known issues
The Cook County Jail is known for its large proportion of mentally ill inmates and has a history of inmate abuse and mistreatment, including a major riot. Additionally, the facility previously banned newspapers for over 30 years, a prohibition ruled to violate the First Amendment by a federal judge.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
- Overcrowding
- 0/30
- Oversight reports
- 0/30
- Structural flags
- 5/15
- Death signals
- 10/15
- Conditions text
- 0/10
What the score is responding to:
- · Substantial documented known-issues record
- · In-custody-death signal in sources
- · Mass-event keyword in sources (riot / massacre / uprising)
This facility scores 15. The national average across 7,437 scored United States facilities is 2 — 13 points above national average.
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- Woodman State JailGatesvilleMaximumState prison720% occupancy
- Stark County JailToulonCounty jail3446% occupancy
Reports
- propublica25 Feb 2021
mp in one leg, Jewish.” When they finally tracked Patrick down a couple weeks later, he refused to open his apartment door, until officers fired shots through it. He was taken to Cook County Jail but wasn’t locked up long. After Glick died, a grand jury determined prosecutors didn’t have enough evidence to indict Patrick. The murder charges were dropped. Patrick returned to Lawndale and went to
- marshall-project8 Sept 2015
ly the site of a major riot resulting from inmate abuse and mistreatment), says simply , “no puedo describirla”: I cannot describe it. In contrast, a recent Google review of Cook County Jail — known for its large proportion of mentally ill inmates — begins, “I actually like this place.” Derrick Alexander continued, “well division 11 protective custody was nice. I'm a gay male and it was my first
- marshall-project14 Jul 2015
pers, forbidden to prisoners, were “more hungered for than food or tobacco; they were the most precious contraband on Robben Island,” Mandela wrote in his memoir. In Illinois, the Cook County Jail banned newspapers for more than 30 years – until this month, when a federal judge ruled that the prohibition violates the First Amendment. Solitary: Mandela described being put in solitary confinement
Data completeness
42%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikidata (Q5166904)
- Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Commons
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.
Cite this page
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Cook County Jail. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cook-county-jail
"Cook County Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cook-county-jail.
@misc{worldprisons-cook-county-jail,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Cook County Jail},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/cook-county-jail},
urldate = {2026-10-20}
}