Help Stop the “Draconian Clampdown” on Mail, Books, and Paper Products in Cook County Jail
Last year, when he was unable to “keep the people in his custody safe,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart implemented punitive measures like prohibiting visitors to Cook County Jail from bringing in paper, attributing overdose deaths to paper soaked with narcotics and poisons. There were 17 deaths in 2023, with at least 10 caused by drug overdoses, as discovered through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by our partners in the Coalition to End Money Bond. The 2023 mortality rate was significantly higher than it was in previous years; an average of about 12 people per year (57 people total) died in Cook County Jail from 2017 to 2021. The lack of transparency surrounding the circumstances of lives lost in the jail is also of concern, with the Sheriff’s Office denying FOIA requests, and providing “almost completely redacted” incident reports.
Although the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has not provided numbers on overdoses resulting from drug-soaked paper goods, the Cook County Jail has for months limited access to paper—even for attorneys with clients inside the jail. Though this provision has since been lifted, the policy originally restricted “documents routinely carried by attorneys fulfilling their constitutional duty to provide legal counsel to detainees.” This restricts due process by making it impossible for incarcerated people to participate fully in their own defense; without access to physical copies, people in jail cannot review case documents without their attorneys bringing laptops during visits. Although the Cook County Public Defender’s Office is not aware of any accusation that their attorneys brought contraband into the jail, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office suggested attorneys must use computers to display case documentation while the jail “worked on a long-term solution to address the security concerns.”
“Intensified [mail] search practices” also threaten learning and educational programming that can come in through “donated books, letters from family, and more.” The Midwest Books to Prisoners project points out that the books sent to people in Cook County Jail have suddenly been rejected at high rates after a decade without issues. The organization explained that the jail has started limiting incarcerated people to three books (a policy that was previously unenforced) and rejecting books with stains, permeated pages, or “odors,” which are typical features of used books. Sources close to the Coalition to End Money Bond have learned that the book confiscation policy has caused conflicts between guards and incarcerated people, even resulting in some people being sent to solitary confinement.
It is more likely that this practice of limiting books, paper, and mail – which has now been adjusted to allow attorneys to bring paper, according to sources in our network – will sever people from life-saving treatment and support instead of acting as a protective mechanism against overdoses. Since Cook County Jail has one of the highest number of people experiencing mental illness in a single facility in the country, especially in light of shutdowns of Chicago’s mental health facilities, the jail has a responsibility to provide safe facilities that do not exacerbate misery. Limited contact of any kind with loved ones during a time of extreme isolation poses grave threats to mental and physical well-being of incarcerated people. Eliminating the personal touch of mail correspondence harms incarcerated people’s connections to their support systems outside. Replacing the original paper copies of materials from visitors with scanned and photocopied versions can cause delays and technical complications, lower the emotional impact of receiving a physical reminder of their loved ones and their support networks, and damage incarcerated people’s ties to the outside community.
In response to community concerns, the Sheriff’s Office introduced a program to provide tablets to jailed people, which would be limited to use in the day room, and therefore inaccessible to people who spend over 20 hours a day in their cells. Further restrictions could include limiting use to short-form messaging and educational videos, phone calls, and potentially limiting communication with the outside world to video calling and texting (at a cost to incarcerated people and their families), making them less likely to send and bring cards and letters. Relying on digital communications is also “inherently insecure” and potentially exposes incarcerated people and their loved ones to even more surveillance. Sheriff Dart’s “draconian clampdown” neglects the implementation of comprehensive and evidence-based harm reduction policies, like providing Naloxone access and training to incarcerated people, as suggested by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and others, and offering test strips to detect adulterants freely and without consequence. These strategies could mitigate the risk of overdoses by reducing dependence on guards who may arrive too late or not at all. As suggested by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation’s Overdose Response Strategy program, access to paper materials – such as books and mail correspondence – could even be a “way to fight addiction by boosting mental health.”
There’s little to no evidence that the practice of banning paper would decrease drugs coming into the jail. States that have “made similar changes have seen no decrease in overdoses or drug seizures.” In fact, most contraband in local jails comes from the staff, not visitors.
The Coalition to End Money Bond is calling for Cook County stakeholders to hold Sheriff Dart accountable for the conditions inside the Cook County Jail—and to ensure that steps are taken to protect incarcerated people from harm. We join this collective call to significantly reduce the number of people incarcerated to promote community safety and well-being.