Judge orders new coronavirus safety procedures at Cook County jail

A federal judge handed down a series of mandates Thursday designed to help keep Cook County jail inmates safe from the coronavirus, but he ultimately refused to order their release to home incarceration or other forms of custody.

Judge Matthew Kennelly partially granted a temporary restraining order sought by pretrial detainees at the jail with his 37-page ruling. But he also acknowledged the difficulties faced by Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart in running the jail.The judge described the complex as "a campus of separate physical facilities" with a population "the size of a small (but not all that small) town."

In a statement, the sheriff's office said: "We appreciate that the judge acknowledged the many unique and aggressive efforts that the office has undertaken to identify and help those who catch the virus and to limit its spread. Much of what the court is requiring today has been well underway for weeks and even months in some cases."

Also on Thursday, the family of the first detainee at the jail to die from complications of COVID-19 filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county violated his constitutional rights by shackling him to a bed while he was battling the virus. The lawsuit filed by Jeffery Pendleton's brothers names Dart and Cook County as defendants. Pendleton died April 5.

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