Federal judge to visit Cook County Jail

Cook County Jail is getting a special visitor.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia M. Kendall said Friday she will tour the facility on Feb. 8 to see for herself just how crowded it is.

Kendall is overseeing a federal consent decree that governs how the jail in Chicago runs and how many inmates can be there at one time. Under the decree, the jail has been ordered to hire more guards in recent years to adequately supervise the inmates.

Yet, roughly 160 people are still sleeping on the jail floors, said Robert Lehrer, an attorney representing inmates.

He and other attorneys have asked for a plan to permanently alleviate overcrowding at the jail. The Cook County Sheriff's office submitted such a plan in January. Kendall has not yet ruled whether the plan is adequate, and said she wants to see first hand the measures Sheriff Tom Dart has implemented.

One of those measures, said sheriff's spokeswoman Penny Mateck, is "hot-bunking," whereby inmates sleep in shifts. Inmates who volunteer to hot bunk get extra shower, television and recreation time, she said.