Religious leaders and community members held a vigil Wednesday to remember the 16 people who died this year while in custody at Cook County Jail.
About two dozen people gathered outside the jail near 26th Street and California Avenue for the vigil, which was organized by the Coalition to End Money Bond. Attendees lit candles and read aloud the names of those who have died.
Vickki Willis, whose son, Alteriq Pleasant, died after suffering a medical emergency while being held at the jail last year, said her son was her best friend and she still misses him every day.
“I talked to my son 10 times a day, even when he was behind bars he still found somebody to call his mother,” Willis said. “My life has been destroyed. It took me a year to not be mad with God.”
An autopsy determined that Pleasant, 27, died of complications of probable opioid toxicity, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled an accident.
“I haven’t slept well in a year,” Willis said, as she sobbed and turned away from the crowd.
In a statement, the Cook County sheriff’s office said that of the 16 deaths in custody at the jail in 2023, five were overdoses and four were due to natural causes.
“The sheriff’s office, in partnership with Cook County Health and leading research organizations, has worked tirelessly to combat the influx of opioids, synthetic cannabinoids and other dangerous chemicals into the Jail,” the sheriff’s office said. “These substances pose a deadly threat to jails and prisons throughout the country.”
The sheriff’s office added that it has taken steps, such as an education campaign and increased screening and intelligence efforts, to stop overdoses at the jail. Jailers have also restricted some paper products moving into the lockup. The sheriff’s office has said paper can be soaked in illicit substances.
Two of the deaths at the jail in 2023 were homicides, and five are pending autopsy reports. There were no signs of foul play for the five remaining deaths, the sheriff’s office said.
A total of 178 people died in the jail from 1995 to 2004, an average of about 18 deaths per year, according to a study in the Journal of Urban Health.
From 2017 to 2021, there were a total of 57 deaths in custody, an average of about 12 per year, according to a report.
Those at the vigil demanded better conditions for detainees at Cook County Jail to help eliminate deaths, suggesting that reducing the number of inmates and increasing resources at the jail could help.
“We know how to stop the loss of life in Cook County Jail,” said Pastor Elle Dowd of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, “The best way to stop the loss of life at the Cook County Jail is to increase access to medical services and to decrease the number of people in this jail.”
Cassandra Greer-Lee, whose husband, Nickolas Lee, died in 2020 after contracting COVID-19 while detained, said the community needs to work together to change the stigma around incarceration.
“So many people don’t value inmate lives, they dehumanize them, but each person back there is a human being,” Greer-Lee said, pointing to the jail. “They have loved ones like us that miss them and need them and suffer without them daily.”
