Cook County could soon be free from a pair of decades-long decrees that require judicial monitoring of detainees at the Cook County Jail.
Commissioners today approved a set of measures that will eliminate the so-called Duran and Harrington decrees, which monitor overcrowding and mental health of the jail population.
If the county adheres to guidelines proposed by the federal government, the plaintiffs in the two cases have agreed to drop their complaints.
Duran was instituted following a lawsuit in 1974 to combat overcrowding and dangerous conditions at the jail. The Harrington Decree has been in place since 1981. It mandates that the mental health of prisoners must be observed, and medication provided to detainees.
The new protocol establishes four monitors, who will review safety, health care, mental health and facilities management at the jail and Cermak Hospital. The cost to taxpayers will be $600,000 for the first 12 months. That’s pocket change compared to 36 years of attorney fees and settlements that one commissioner estimates has cost the county $36 million.
The County Board’s approval means the Duran and Harrington suits would be dropped and replaced by a Department of Justice lawsuit against the county. That would be dropped if the county is found to be compliant in 18 months.
In a letter to Commissioner Peter Silvestri, chairman of the County Board’s litigation committee, deputy state’s attorney Patrick Driscoll said the lack of a sunset date for the two suits “has enabled Duran and Harringon to exist seemingly forever.”
“The important thing is that it is a set term: compliance in 18 months,” Silvestri says. “I think it’s imperative that the county get the federal and state court oversight finished, and the way to do that is to comply.”
In comments to commissioners, Driscoll said called the agreement “a positive step in wrapping up some long and expensive litigation.”
The monitors also make each institution – the sheriff’s office, the facilities management department and Cermak Health Services – accountable for compliance.
“It makes us responsible for what we can control,” says Steve Patterson, spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart.
Patterson says Dart believes the sheriff’s office has been in compliance with the suits for years. Harrington has been virtually dormant, he says, while violations of Duran have been absent since April 2008.
“We’ve believed for a while that we’re substantially complaint with the Duran Decree, and have been for a while,” he says.
Patterson says one of Dart’s goals for 2010 was to prove substantial compliance with Duran. Now he’ll have his chance.
Windy Citizen 