April 01--Cook County Jail may not be a very pleasant place, but it is not the cesspool of violence described by several inmates in a federal lawsuit, a judge ruled late Tuesday.
In a long-awaited opinion, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall denied a motion brought by Northwestern University's MacArthur Justice Center that would have required Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to draw up new measures to curtail an alleged "crisis of violence" at the jail.
In her 50-page ruling, Kendall said testimony at a nine-day hearing over which she presided last year showed that Dart has worked "diligently" under a federal monitor to improve conditions at the jail and has been successful in many areas.
The judge also blasted the testimony of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, an expert called by Northwestern, saying he failed to investigate the "self-serving" claims of dozens of inmates who filed unsworn complaints that formed the basis of the lawsuit.
"An expert is expected to review evidence objectively and to apply his methodology to scrutinize it and conclude based on his expertise," Kendall wrote. "Here, Dr. Schwartz completely abdicated his role as an objective and critical analyst when he accepted without scrutiny the conclusions given to him by plaintiffs' lawyers."
The lawsuit, filed in February 2014, alleged a culture of brutality exists for the approximately 2,000 inmates housed in two of the jail's maximum-security divisions. According to court records, the problems were uncovered when law students working on behalf of the clinic were given access to the maximum-security divisions to research unrelated litigation.
Shocked by stories of violence told by detainees, lawyers for the clinic last year sent unsolicited letters to inmates asking about their treatment and ended up taking 100 signed declarations from those claiming to be victims of or witnesses to abuse.
Only four, though, testified before Kendall last year, and in her ruling the judge said there was "significant disconnect" between what was alleged in the suit and the testimony in court. She said that contrary to the allegations of a code of silence among guards at the jail, the evidence showed that most cases of alleged abuse were investigated and guards were punished.
Calls seeking comment from MacArthur as well as Dart's office were not immediately returned.
Since 2010, the jail has operated under a consent decree with the Justice Department that has kept a close watch on inmate-safety issues. Last year, monitor Susan McCampbell moved the jail into "substantial compliance" in all 77 categories outlined in the agreement, putting the jail on track to get out from under the decree by 2016.
jmeisner@tribune.com
