United States · IL · Chicago
Cook County Jail
Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
For families
How to send mail, money, and visit Cook County Jail
Step-by-step guidance using the United States system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.
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)
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
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Current population
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Occupancy
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Year opened
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Operational
Facility profile
Operator
Cook County Department of Corrections
Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
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Region
IL
Security level
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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
No major issues documented in our database.
Contact & address
Conditions Risk Score
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
Data completeness
34%How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation
- Wikipedia — Wikimedia Foundation
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap Contributors
- See /data-sources for our overall methodology.