Cook County Jail

Common card · No. 361322

The Cook County Jail is a county jail of Cook County, Illinois, located in South Lawndale, Chicago. It is operated by the Cook County Sheriff's Office. It is sometimes referred to as 26th and Cal or Hotel California, as its address is on 26th Street and California Avenue. A city jail has existed on this site since after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but major county prisoners were not generally collocated here until closure of the old Hubbard Street Criminal Court Building and jail in 1929. Since then, a 1920s Neoclassical and Art Deco courthouse for the criminal division of the Cook County Circuit Court has operated at the South Lawndale complex. As of 2017, Cook County operated the third-largest jail system in the United States by inmate population (after the Los Angeles County and New York City jail systems). The jail has held several well-known and infamous criminals, including Al Capone, Tony Accardo, Frank Nitti, Larry Hoover, Jordan Tate, Jeff Fort, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy...

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