Chicago Newsroom

Published on Jan 19, 2017

Ken Davis is joined by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who discusses the complicated issues facing the Cook County Jail. On any given day there are about 7500 inmates at the jail, and an additional 2500 people living at home on electronic monitoring. But at least 2000 of the people under his supervision have mental health issues, and many hundreds more are being held simply because they are unable to raise the money for a cash bail bond. Moreover, virtually all are awaiting trial, many for very minor offenses, and all of these people, since they haven’t yet been tried, are at this stage presumed innocent. Dart also discusses Chicago’s ongoing violence epidemic and some tools that might begin to turn the tide. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).