IL Prisoners Beaten

[JoshsGirl2003]

Heres another one for the records.....


Prisoners Allegedly Beaten in Ill. Jail

By MIKE ROBINSON
CHICAGO (AP) - One prisoner suffered a split lip, another got splinters from being hit with a pool cue, and others suffered bruises when guards beat prisoners in the latest outbreak of violence at troubled Cook County jail, community groups alleged.

Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan's office denied the accusation, saying eight inmates housed on the jail's maximum-security tier picked a fight with two guards and had to be subdued by reinforcements.

The groups asked State's Attorney Richard Devine for an investigation into the July 27 incident, which they say is the third case of guard violence reported at the jail in three years.

A Devine aide said the allegations were under review.

Federal prosecutors have said they are investigating the Cook County Sheriff's Department, which is responsible for operating the jail. The chief judge of the Circuit Court's criminal division said in April a grand jury would look into jail conditions.

``These beatings are not an isolated incident - they are part of a culture of violence and intimidation against prisoners at the Cook County Jail,'' said Jean Maclean Snyder, trial counsel for the MacArthur Justice Center - a group affiliated with the University of Chicago law school.

Snyder said the legal organizations learned of the incident through inmates' relatives. She said representatives of the groups went to the jail and saw the injured men.

A letter to Devine signed by leaders of the groups said guards ``without provocation, set upon (the prisoners), hitting them and kicking them, even after they were handcuffed.''

``One guard used a pool stick to beat the inmates,'' the letter said.

It was signed by representatives of MacArthur as well as Amnesty International, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern University Legal Clinic, the Community Renewal Society, the Illinois Institute for Community Law and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

In February, prisoners said they were beaten, kicked and stomped in response to a gang-related stabbing a few days earlier. In July, 2000, two guards said they witnessed five handcuffed and shackled inmates being beaten and kicked by other guards.

Devine announced last month that local prosecutors would not file criminal charges in the 2000 incident, saying there was insufficient evidence.