Computer crash briefly sends Cook jail back to the paper age
An 18-hour crash Monday of a 30-year-old computer system at Cook County Jail delayed court hearings and interfered with the release of some prisoners, a jail watchdog said Tuesday.
"The jail had to go back to 30-year-old technology," said Charles Fasano of the John Howard Association, a group that monitors conditions at the jail as part of a consent decree in a federal lawsuit over jail overcrowding.
Guards had to issue paper passes to prisoners and write down booking information to be entered into computer systems later, said Fasano. Some prisoners missed or were late to their court hearings, and others may have been delayed in getting released from jail on time, which could lead to lawsuits, Fasano said.
Fasano made the revelation at the county board meeting as part of a plea by the sheriff's department for the board to release $1.1 million that has been budgeted. Cook County Undersheriff Zelda Whittler said a new computer system is already being installed through pre-allocated funds, but the $1.1 million is needed to write software to get more than two decades of archived information out of the old system and into the new system.
The board must borrow the money for the project, and Fasano's report led commissioners into the brier patch of an existing, monthslong fight over just exactly how much needs to be borrowed. Commissioners disagree whether the total amount of funding needed for capital improvements and expenditures - from which the $1.1 million could be taken - is $262 million or $294 million.
In the end, after three attempts to either put the matter off or take the funds from other sources, the board agreed to allocate the $1.1 million, but it did not indicate how to pay for it.
That left Fasano unsure as to whether the county would actually be delivering the needed money anytime soon.
"I'm not really clear," he said.
He said his association will give the county a couple of weeks to come up with the cash, but if it doesn't, he may be forced to ask the federal judge in charge of the lawsuit decree to order the county to quickly pony up.