Systemic failures of government are never acceptable. When they affect people being held in custody while awaiting trial, the stakes are particularly high.
People held in Illinois’ 90 county jails are virtually all presumed innocent. A few are held after conviction on minor offenses, too. Some have violated parole; others are accused of violent crimes. Many have mental health issues or drug addiction.
As a society, we are obligated to keep them safe and healthy. They are entitled to humane treatment and protective observation.
With that in mind, consider these troubling revelations from a multipart series published last week by the Better Government Association’s Illinois Answers Project. It details a record of epic mismanagement that ranges from shoddy recordkeeping to inhumane treatment of people behind bars. Some are matters of life and death.
The reporting, built on a deep dive into volumes of jail data from 2019 through 2025, found:
• Sixty-three deaths in Illinois jails over the six years went unreported, though state law requires reporting. That makes the 230 deaths that were reported a significant undercount. Altogether, jails statewide paid $50 million in wrongful death settlements and court fees in that time.
• Pepperball launchers were used in 11 jails, sometimes shot into cells directly at an incarcerated person. Winnebago County Jail guards used pepperball launchers dozens of times, including 24 instances when they aimed directly at someone inside a cell.
• Forced medication and use of restraint chairs are common, often without proper reporting to the state. Restraint chairs, which use leather straps on arms and legs to bind people, are deemed an “instrument of torture” by the United Nations.
• More than 1 in 4 jails deaths result from suicide, most by hanging, and infrequent monitoring of jail cells — often due to short staffing — may contribute to the suicide rate.
Amassing this volume of information was no small feat. The BGA, where I work, partnered with the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation to make data from more than 30,000 jail records accessible and usable.
Users can check into conditions at their own county jails.
But data hardly tells the whole story, and Illinois Answers reporters dug through records and interviewed dozens of people to show us the humanity behind the numbers.
For example, Dennis Francis Barrett, 38, died while in the custody of Madison County Jail, where police took him after a minor crash upon discovering Barrett had broken parole on a prior nonviolent crime. The crash ruptured Barrett’s spleen, prompting his jailers to transport him to a nearby hospital, where he died. But Madison County did not report the death to the state because, technically, Barrett was not in the jail when he died — a questionable splitting of hairs on the jail’s part.
A 28-year-old woman held at Winnebago County Jail, on suicide watch, refused to hand over clothing to a jail officer. The officer fired a pepperball launcher into her cell. The woman still refused. Two more shots followed, then two bursts of pepper spray. It took one more round of pepperballs before she handed over the clothing.
The five years of data also show the raw nature of life behind bars in Illinois jails: More than 300 reported fires, with one happening almost every other day at Cook County Jail at one point; 14 riots or rebellions; more than 2,200 suicides or attempts; more than 14 homicides; more than 1,000 assaults on staff; and more than 450 alleged sexual offenses.
The question arises: What should be done about the incomplete recordkeeping and inadequate oversight?
Because jails are run by counties, not the state, there is no simple statewide solution. And Gov. JB Pritzker evidently has little interest: His office did not respond to requests for comment on Illinois Answers’ exhaustive reporting effort.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Meat Thermometer Deals 2026
Surely Pritzker could find funds to bolster the Department of Corrections’ Jail and Detention Standards Unit (JDSU), which is the state unit responsible for inspecting county jails. It has only four full-time inspectors to cover the 90 county jails. Even that slim crew still manages to fail more than half of the state’s jails each year on inspection reports.
In 2025, Illinois Answers found, the jail-inspection unit received 6,500 reports of “extraordinary and unusual” occurrences at Illinois jails — episodes outside the norm of daily activity, which often involve health or safety hazards. But the agency was able to conduct reviews in only 14 cases. And even then, the JDSU does not release the reports online, track trends or share data publicly.
The Department of Corrections, which reports to Pritzker, in a statement to Illinois Answers asserted it has no obligation to investigate reported failings by county jails. But the agency does have authority to initiate litigation by referring noncompliance reports to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
After all, failing grades alone don’t lead to reform. Litigation, or the threat of it, could.
Raoul could make a big impact by publicly calling on the Department of Corrections to issue referrals of code violations to him for possible enforcement action. Raoul also could use his role enforcing compliance with the state’s Freedom of Information Act to help secure release of JDSU data — which could buttress the public’s calls for reforms.
Illinois also could apply tactics that other states have found effective. Like Iowa does, Illinois could give an independent ombudsman oversight of county jails. The state also could establish an agency, such as California has, to review jail standards every two years. And all it would take is a change of JDSU policy for the state to publish the data it collects about “extraordinary occurrences,” as Pennsylvania does.
The shortcomings in oversight and failures of public accountability are serious, but they’re not unsolvable. Additional oversight resources and stronger enforcement efforts — on top of more vigilant compliance and care at the county jail level — could help lead to a more accountable, just and humane system of incarceration across Illinois.
David Greising is president of the Better Government Association.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].