Listen to an audio recording of Hybachi LeMar from Cook County Jail:

Revolutionary greetings

The following are clear violations of our rights, privileges, and services according to the Cook County Department of Corrections Handbook.

Lack of access to a clean and sanitary living environment: the foundational structure of Cook County Jail is falling apart. Water floods by leaking through the cracked perimeters which connect the walls to the floors. Water comes into the cells when it rains. as well as from cell to cell, and also drips from cell vents onto the toilet beneath them on occasion due to plumbing and other maintenance issues. We’re subjected to leaking toilets, plaster and paint peeling and falling off the walls.

Black mold in the unit washroom, particular here in Division 5, a division that was condemned over five years and was reopened amidst the pandemic. Cell vents that haven’t been cleaned for months, possibly even years, and darkened by filth. Bad water that dries the skin.

Infestations of nats and ants in our cells and in the food that we’re served. Infestations of water bugs and roaches – a dead roach was just found on it’s back on the dayroom dining table this very minute as violations were being written. Dead, dying, and living roaches and water bugs infest the shower area and units in general, including the corridors leading to the cell blocks. Lack of access to disinfectant to clean our living environment. Shower areas unable to be cleaned on a regular basis. No change of linens for weeks.

Denial of mental health assistance despite requests for detainees mentioning suicide to correctional staff. Lack of immediate and adequate medical attention. Lack of access to grievance forms for days on end.

Unknown black substances repeatedly being discharged from cell sinks, knobs and faucets. No soap accessible on the units. Food with mold, rotten are often served for breakfast. No privacy curtains for doors for the dayroom toilets, which are infected with water bugs, roaches and nats, as well as the bolder stench of nat-ridden urinals attached to the walls. Unclean tablets and telephones due to lack of disinfectant.

Spiders that hang from webs and ceiling corners of our cells we can’t reach with a broom cause none are provided except for ‘cell cleaning day’. Many prisoners in here have rashes and show each other insect bites, wondering where they came from.

We eat bread that comes from loaves in the kitchen that are eaten through by mice – instead of throwing the loaves away, the authorities in Cook County Jail kitchen ensure only the bitten bread from the violated bag is tossed out.

Concerning our basic rights on larger procedures: The Cook County DOC handbook clearly states: “The CCDOC provides you a clean uniform twice per week, fresh linen once per week, and a clean blanket once per month. In addition, laundry service for clothing purchased on commissary is regularly provided”.

We’re currently being denied ALL of these basic rights, and have been for months. When we’re able, we only have access to one clean shirt and one pair of clean pants per week, with the only pants size offered to us is size 4X, equivalent to about the size 52 waist.
We haven’t received any clean blankets for months, with the exception about two days ago, following the demonstration outside of Cook County Jail, which is acknowledged as “victory blankets”.

We don’t have access to a clean laundry service for clothes purchased on commissary at all. In fact, when we resort to using our sheets as clothes-lines in our cells, they are routinely ripped down by corrections staff, depriving us of the ability to do our laundry ourselves, and are threatened with disciplinary sanctions if our sheets are ripped as clothes lines.

We’re never allowed to exchange our towels for clean ones. Our requests to have them washed by the “laundry service” is always adamantly denied.

Many people confined at Cook County Jail, thousands out of the approximately 10,000 people inside these walls are wearing walking shoes that are 3-5 sizes larger or smaller than our actual foot sizes. At the time of this message, only sizes 8 and 14 are being given to people coming in through intake upon reception by the administration.

We’re only allowed 3 books per person.

We’re not prewarned of attorney visits, which leads to an inability to prepare as effectively as we could if we were given at least a five minute warning. Last of access to our case summary which show what charges we been charged with – many of us don’t know the charges we’re charged with before arriving in court, be it zoom or in person, making fighting our cases feel like going into a boxing ring blindfolded.

We’re subjected to obscene commissary prices – for example, one square pack of ramen noodles costs $1.02 – the price of five at the Family Dollar. We’re deprived access to contact visits, despite the fact that the COVID pandemic is obviously not a word of concern at Cook County Jail, being that face masks aren’t offered in the unit we’re confined on in Division 5, and when asked, we’ve been told, “We don’t give out masks anymore” by corrections staff. Hand sanitizer is not provided on the unit, or commissary, or at all.

Lack of access to recreation, as well as the law library to legally defend ourselves as effectively as we could if we had such access. No posting of new rules in the unit, nor memos concerning new rules that we end up getting “punished” for breaking. We’re subjected to group punishment, typically a 24 hour lockdown on the unit, regardless if it’s a single person charged with a minor misconduct.

The health care request forms we fill out and hand in to medical and mental health assistance go unanswered despite the filling out of several requests. Prisoners are told to sign for inmate handbooks that we don’t receive after we’re processed. Retaliations for written requests.

Our basic rights for grooming and hygiene supplies are also being violated. On page 18 of the CCDOC handbook, it clearly articulates that “an individual will be issued razors and allow us to shave at certain times”. Here in Division 5 we haven’t had access to a razor for months, neither do we have mirrors to observe with our eyes how our faces physically look like. Appearing before judges unshaved is an unnecessary reality, that we, particularly on Division 5 think on a professional basis, and is not a reflection of our character as a human being who want to make the best impression in general as well as before the courts.

These inhumane conditions and violations are our basic rights, and we want everyone fighting against human rights violations to know.

3. The CCDOC information handbook for individuals in custody states in Chapter 3 Notice of Rights Under Arrest, in no ambiguous terms, that “every Sheriff, every Police or other persons who is in charge of any jail, police station, or other criminal proceedings, be posted every room other than cells of such buildings where persons are held in custody, in in conspicuous places – I repeat, in conspicuous place, where it may be read and seen by persons in custody, a poster printed in large containing a verbatim copy in the English language of the provisions in Section 103-2 103-3”.

Section 103-2 just listed particularly emphasizes: “A. being taken into custody, every person shall have the right to remain silent. B. no unlawful means of any kind shall be used to obtain a statement, admission, or confession from any person in custody. C. Persons in custody shall be treated humanely and provided with proper food, shelter, and the required medical treatment without unreasonable delay if the need for treatment is apparent”.

None of these rights are posted anywhere on Division 5 1-A.

We find these denials of basic rights and building code violations reason enough for our release, and to shut down Cook County Jail, unfit for human habitation, worthy of nothing short of a red X spraypainted in a square or nailed to it’s wall.

In solidarity with the repressed,

United on Division 5