Cook County jail lockdown continued

Cook County jail remains on lockdown this morning after electrical and staffing problems related to the blizzard.

Sheriff Tom Dart declared a “civil emergency,” which allowed him to shift other sheriff's police to the jail to keep up staffing levels.

Dart put the jail complex on Chicago's Southwest Side on lockdown before the snowstorm hit Tuesday evening. Visits were banned and movement limited in the compound. At the height of the storm, electricity was lost in the maximum-security Division 9 at 31st Street and Sacramento, with about 1,000 inmates, and the boot camp, at 28th and Rockwell, and those areas were running on generators. Boot-camp inmates were transported to an empty minimum-security building, and electricity to Division 9 was restored Wednesday morning.

In addition, about 300 correction officers were unable to report for their shift at 11 p.m. Tuesday. About 150 from the evening shift stayed on to work double time, and joined by about 100 cadets and with limited movement they were able to weather the storm.

“As a result of these efforts, security is not compromised in any way,” Dart spokesman Steve Patterson said.

The sheriff extended the lockdown until 7 a.m. today.