Chicago’s Jail Is One of the County’s Biggest Mental Health Care Providers. Here’s a Look Inside.

Chicago’s Jail Is One of the County’s Biggest Mental Health Care Providers. Here’s a Look Inside.

Posted on January 8, 2019

Chicago’s Cook County Jail is the biggest single-site jail in the United States. It’s also one of the biggest mental health care providers in the country. About a third of the jail’s 6,000 or so inmates have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and many of them were sent to the facility after the state reduced funding for hospitals and community caseworkers during the economic recession.