The Cook County Jail, located on 96 acres (39 hectares) in South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, is operated by the Sheriff of Cook County.[1] It is sometimes referred to as California 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] 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).[3]
The jail has held several well-known and infamous criminals, including Al Capone, Tony Accardo, Frank Nitti, Larry Hoover, Jordan Tate, Jeff Fort, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy and the Chicago Seven. Earlier such jails have held other prisoners, including those involving the Haymarket Affair.[4]
It was one of three sites in which executions were carried out by electrocution in Illinois. Between 1928 and 1962, the electric chair was used 67 times at the jail, including the state's last electrocution, that of James Duke, on August 24, 1962. The state's other electrocutions were carried out at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill and at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester.
- ^ "Cook County Sheriff's Office - Home Page". Cook County. 27 June 2017. Archived from the original on April 23, 2020. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- ^ "The Cook County Criminal Court and Jailhouse". chicagology.com. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
- ^ Breeanna Hare & Lisa Rose, "Pop. 17,049: Welcome to America's largest jail", CNN (September 26, 2016).
- ^ "Chicago Hauntings: The Sinister Men Who Were Executed At The Old Cook County Jail Gallows, And Sightings At The River North Firehouse Now In Its Place". CBS News. 31 October 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2024.