Cook courts reopen Friday

Cook County circuit courts will reopen Friday.

The blizzard forced the closure of the county’s six district courts, including Rolling Meadows and Skokie, as well as the Daley Center and the Criminal Courts Building in Chicago Wednesday and Thursday.

During that time, Cook County sheriff’s deputies who normally work in those courtrooms — including 20 deputies from Rolling Meadows and Skokie — were redeployed by Sheriff Tom Dart to the Cook County Jail. They helped maintain operations after Dart declared a civil emergency Wednesday in the wake of staff shortages and electrical problems resulting from the blizzard.

Dart lifted a lockdown at the jail Thursday morning, and boot-camp inmates who had been moved to an empty jail building because of a power outage were returned to their barracks.

Meanwhile, court cases that had been set for hearings Wednesday and Thursday will be rescheduled.