Cook County Jail
Location: Franklin and Quincy streets
Life Span: 1867-1871
Architect: John M. Van Osdel
Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1866
NEW COUNTY JAIL.
Supervisor Farwell, from a special committee on a new jail, appointed on the 1st of last July, and the estimated expenses of the same, reported that the necessary land, fronting 63 feet on franklin street, 150 feet on Quincy street, and 50 feet on Adams street, can be obtained for about the sum of $20,000, giving the necessary room for a building and a sufficient prison yard. Accompanying the report was a plan and estimate for the building, as furnished by Mr. J. M. Van Osdel.
The following is an estimate of the cost of a jail, containing 104 cells of cut stone work, 5×8 feet area each, and 8 feet high, being in four tiers, of 26 cells in each tier. The prison walls to be of rock-faced stone work; roof of prison of slab; roof of front building of iron work: walls of front building same as present Armory; the interior walls of brick: the front building 65×47 feet. It will have a basement and three stories. The basement will be arranged for kitchens, laundry and dining-rooms for jailors; also boiler room for heating the prison by steam. Vaults for fuel will be placed under the sidewalk. The principal story will have four rooms for public offices and guard rooms. The second floor will contain a hospital and debtors room, and the third floor will be fitted up for jailor’s family and sleeping rooms for officers. This prison will cost, exclusive of walls to enclose the yard, and heating apparatus, estimates about for $90,000.
The estimates for the building in detail were as follows:
- Excavations, $500; rock face and rubble stone work, $15,000; 104 cells of slabs of stone, $25,000; iron work, 810,000; slate and tin work, 81,500: carpenter work and materials, $17,000; locks $2,200; and sewers, hardware, drains $1,500; and plumbing, $1,500; brick work painting and glazing, and plastering, $6,500; whitewashing, $300; flagging corridors, $1,500; stone sidewalks and vaults, $1.510. Total, $81,300.
Chicago Tribune, November 17, 1867
THE COUNTY JAIL.
Cayenne Pepper in Possession of Prisoner.
The county jail is a nuisance, not only in the Court House inside, but in the square outside. Respectable people passing through the equare, especially on Sundays, are perpetually annofed by crowds of disreputable characters who congregate around the jail windows outside, and indulge in obscene jests with the prisoners, who talk to them freely, and not infreqently make indecent exposures throngh the windows. Nor is this all. Very frequently the friends of prisoners have passed up to them tools with which to effect their escape. Flics and sawe have not seldom been passed through the gratings by the help of a string, and several eecapes bave been effected in times past through these agencies. It is physically impossible to hew a way out of the jail without tools, yet the hewing process has been effocted, and on more than one recent occasion these things have been found in the possession of prisoners, before the opportunity had come for using them.
The new appliance. of which mention has two or three times been made in these columns, was fmported into the jail some time recently, probably through windows—cayenne pepper.
The diabolical device of casting it into the eyes of an opponent seeme to have been contemplated by a fellow named Brown, now awaiting his transportation to Joliet, and some fiend in human shape was found willing to aid him in the essay. From information received Conrad Folz, the jailer, searched the pockets of Brown, and found a package of red pepper, containing several ounces.
The intention was donbtlees to watch a favorable opportunity, dash the pepper in the eyes of the guard, and escape while official was smarting under the effecte of the dose, taking with him, perhaps, some of his fellow prisoners. Brown is the fellow who was recently sentenced for having been found under a bed in the Matteson House, with undoubted burglarious intent.
It is only a few days stace Connerton, the garrotter of McCarty, was found in possession of a small saw and chisel, with which he doubtless intended to effect an escape.
The public can scarcely blame the Jailers for these things, it being impossible to guard the windows outside with the email force at the disposal of the Sheriff. Tue Board of Supervisors have on two or three occasions taken impecunious action on the matter of sheeting up the but have not remedied the evil. It is much to be desired that in the changes soon to be made in the Court House, the security of the jail from outside parties will receive due attention.
Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1868
Judge Wilhame of the Circuit Court delivered yesterday morning a charge to the jury, from the statements in which no one, who has been in the Court House and has noticed its walis dark with miasmatic dews and its atmosphere heavy with pestilential vapors, will dissent. It is as follows: Gentlemen of the Grand Jury: I am not awere of the nature of the criminal offences which are to be brought to your notice by the Prosecuting Attorney, and therefore I shall not give you any charge except upon one subject. Your character as men and as citizena, is a eufficient guarantee that your osthe will be scrupuIcuely observed; that no man will be presented by and you none left through or unpresented judice, passion, or malice, through fear, favor, or sffection; but that in all your conduct you will be governed solely by a regard to the public interest. One eubject, however, I deem of sufficient imtion.
portarce to invoke for it your serious considersand to ask that you give it, if need be, a protracted investigation. I allude to the present position of the Jail, in its relation to the public rooms and offices of the county and city, and as it affecta the health and comfort of our citizens. It will be your duty, as conservators of the public intereste, to inquire whether a jail so eituated, in the beart of a large city, and in the basement of a building used by both county and city, visited occasionally by every adult citizen, and open to strangers, ie not necessarily E0 destructive of the health and comfort of ite invalids, and of the citizens generally, as to be regarded as a public nuisance. By the provisions of the statute in reference to jails and jailore, it is made the duty of the grand jury, or a committee thereof, at each term of the Circuit Court, to visit the county jail and examire the condition thereof, and inquire into the treatment of the prisoner, and make report thereof to the court. And, by the same act, it is made the duty of the court to inquire and see that all prisoners, civil and crimiDal, are humanely treated.
This stela’e has reference, primarily, to the manner of keeping the jail by the Sheriff and his employes, and bis and their treatment of the prisoners. Bat the same would humanity aiso which prompted such legialation, dictate that the comfort and health of the prisoners, as affected by the location of their cells and even of the jail itself, should not be 1g. cored. How far it is coneistent with a due regard for the welfare of the prisoners, that from 100 to 150 abould be confined in celle, which, from their eituation, cannot but be imperfectly ventilated, is a question which may well invoke your serious notice: especial y when it is remembered that these persons are not in many instances convicted criminals, but are detained in prison awaiting trial. I am not aware of any cer surable act of commission cr omission on the part of Sberiff Beveridge, either in the care of the jeil apartmenta, or ia the treatment of the prisoners, and Lie high character a8 a man and a citizen assures me that hie dutiea have been properly attended to.
No remark of mine is deeigned to cast any ceneure upon him in the disct arge of his official duties. Bat it 18 your right and duty to visit the jail, and to ascertain the management of the apartment, and their relatirn to the city and county, and whether the preeent arrangement and position of the cells and the debtors’ rooms affects injuriously the health of and comfort of the prisoners. The phi’anthropy our age extends to and provides for the inesne, the idiot, and the criminal. Thie, however, 18 only a partial view of this subject. it will be for you to laquire whether the ur offending citizens do not suffer fAr more than the imprisoned offenders, in consequenca o1 this location of the jail, and whether the injury done to them may not be go great as to constitute a public nuisance.
A public nuisance may result from doing 8 thing to the annoyance of the community, or from neglecting to do a thing which the common god requires, provined such annoyance or neglect 1e of a real substantial character. It is not to constitute a nuisance, that the health of the community should ba impaired by the injurious acte. It amelie, offeneive to the senses of the public, are constantly crested, and thereby the enjoyment of life and property, to any large number of citizens, serioualy impaired, that is enough to constitute a nuisance. It is the right of the citizen to have a fresh, pure atmosphere, and an impure one detracts from his comfort, end will, sooner or later, injuriously affect his bealth. You are to ascertain, gentlemen, whether offensive smells are to be found constantly in toe public rocms and offices of the county and city, rooms to which every citizen and stranger has access st all hours of the day, and of which many persona are constant occapanta.
11 you shoula and, as I am eure you will And, from the evidence of your own senses, and the te y of credible witneeses, that several of the rooms of this building are well niga uninhabite bie, by reason of the Cutstant presence of effereive odore, it ill be your daty to inq ure wbat is their prolific source. If you should fed that such cdore iseug from the jail, that they are the necessary and inevitable product of the same, 10 its present position, and with its necessary appendages- culinary department–then such jsil, in its present position, is a nuisance of common law, independent of any statutory provision. You will have before you a number of witnesees, well kncwn to mary of you, and after your own inspection and after the nearing of the evidence, you may be of the opinion that the jail in its present reistion to the public offices 18 a public nuissnce. It is not receseary, however, gentlemen, even if this be your opinion, that you should present the jail as a nuieance. A report, embodyirg your views, would be far more satisfactory to the pub tc, and would be quite as likely to secure a reform, if one is needed as a bill of indictment.
In a matter wbich concerna the interest of all citizers of the country, an indictment should not be resorted to, until every other means has been exhaneted. The feeirg preval’s in some quarters that a jail uncer the Court House is a necesaity; that public economy and convenience demand ite con inaance in such a position. Itie a feeling to be respected, for it is indulged in by honest, intelligert citizere, whose opinions are entitled to great regard. If you slould find, upon investigation, that this is the only lerge city in the Uaion in which the jail, and city and county officers are included under ore roof, that, in severai of them, the two buildinge sre miles apart, the argument. from nece-sity, would seem to have been taurly arewered.
The argument from economy will not be pressed, 11 it abould be found that the public health and comfort is being sacrificed by the present arComing ae you do, gentlemen, from all parts of the city, and en ering upon an investization diepaseionstely and w1 bout prejudice, your opinion, deliberately formed upon an inspection of the premises and upon the testimony of witnesses, will be entitled to and will command the respecttal attention of the whole community. I sm persuaded that the differences of opinion, an to the necessary relations of the jail and Court House, arise from an honest misapprehension of the fact, and that when the truth is made to appear, whatever the public heath and comfort re quire, as euch requirements may be disc’osed by your re port, will de re-dily acquiesced in by all cur citizens. I commend this subject to you, as one well worthy of your careful examination and deliberate judgment. REPORT OF THE GRAND JURY, To the Honorable E S Williame, Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County: We, the grand jars, baving investiga’ed the matter of the jail, to which your Honor called our attention, present the following as our report: We called befere us several witnesses who have occupied room. in the Court House for geveral yeare, and they unanimously stated that very of Tensive and impure odore constantly arise from the jail to such an extent as to render it nearly impossible to remain in their offices.
We examined Hon. J. B. Rice, Mayor of Chicago; Walter Kimball, the Comptrolier; General E. S Salomon, County Clerk; J.
F. Waite, principal clerk in the Recorder’s office, and others. We aleo vented the jell and made pereonal inspection of it. We found it clean, and as well kept as it can be considering ate location. From the examination of witnesses, and our of it, we unanimouely say that the present location of the jail le entirely unsuitable, and should be removed as soon as possible.
We believe that the bealth of the persons who occupy offices in the Court House ie seriouely impaired by reason of the offensive odore aforesaid. We also belteve that 01 the ground of human• ity to the persons confined in the jail it ought to be removed, and that it is a diegrace to the people of Cook County to let it remain where it now 18 any longer than may be necessare to secure another place. We would respec’fully aek that a copy. of this report may be presented to the Board of Super* visors of this county at their next meeting. GEORGE M. HIGGINBON. Foreman of the Grand Jury. May 1868.
Chicago Evening Post, June 9, 1868
This Morning’s Session.
The Board of Supervisors 10 o’clock this morning.
REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY JAIL.
A communication was read, requesting the Board to remove the County Jail from its present location. Referred to the Committee on Public Buildings.
The following paper, from the Sanitary Superintendent, was read and referred to the Committee on Jail and Jail Accounts “To the Supervisors of Cook County: I have the honor to call your attention to the importance and necessity of the removal of the county jail as a sanitary measure. The jail has been a disgrace to the county for years, and although it is now being renovated and the drainage improved, the Board of Health is satisfied the benefit derived will only be temporary. Quartering prisoners in the same building in which justice is administered for the purpose of convenience is a relic of barbarism unworthy the spirit of the age, and wholly in opposition to well established sanitary laws. In this case the objections multiply in the same ratio as the population of the county increases. order of the Board.
John H. Rauch,
Sanitary Superintendent.
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