Cook County Jail

Hi Linda, my boyfriend was incarcerated last year and received a warrant for his arrest while incarcerated..they set his bond at $200,000 for not apppearing in court in Bridgview for a dui charge (his first) is that a normal bond ammount for something like that? now they are holding him in county till april 16th to see the judge who ordered that bond and warrant, do you think they'll let him go? he has an attorney but he just told me "we should be fine" and Im worried.. what do you think?
thanks!

Bail in Illinois, especially Cook County is grossly excessive. This is because it is a racket and 10% of the bond (the bond being 10 % of the bail) is kept by the court even if the person is found innocent. It is likely that the attorney will ask for a reduction of bail and the judge may grant it, but you don't know for sure. If he got a DUI and failed to show up for court, the judge is trying to teach him a lesson that he should learn. Good luck!

Can you send a letter to an inmate in cook county? and if so how do i go about doing this?

The jail web site says the following:

The mailing address for sending letters to detainees is:

P.O. Box 089002
Chicago, Illinois 60608
Be sure to include with the address the detainees name and I.D. number.
(I.D. #'s can be retrieved from our automated system 773-869-5245 or on the web site at inmate search: http://www2.cookcountysheriff.org/search/ )

You can send up to three magazines, newspapers, or soft cover books. You must have a return address and name on the envelope's return address.

On the Inmate Locator site, it says Visiting is only restricted to immediate family because of H1N1. Is that still in effect?
Which number is the housing location in the division to know which day visiting is = 02-D1-G-3-G =

The Div is the first number, but you also need to know the unit in the Div - the unit is the second set of numbers. You have to read the Sheriff's web site to know what units have limited visiting due to H1N1. It is constantly changing.

do you know if the visiting is still restricted to immediate family?

and which one's division number? so when would visitation be?

how do i find out if someone is being held there? I did the imate search and found nothing. How do i go about getting the information?

If the inmate has been convicted it will show, if not the inmate has not been convicted yet.

The CCDOC inmate search may not show someone the first day they are there. Try again. Could the detainee have been arrested on a parole violation? If so they may be at the IDOC. Use their inmate search feature on their web site. If the person is not listed in either place he is not in CCDOC or IDOC.

how do i find out if someone is being held there? I did the imate search and found nothing. How do i go about getting the information?

If a person is scheduled for a hearing on Monday are they usually sentenced that day? Once they are sentenced must they complete there sentence before being extradited to another county?

The court procedure is as follows:
-bond court sets bond
-arraignment to read charges to detainee and accept plea of innocent or guilty
-pretrial hearings to obtain discovery (evidence) from prosecutor and to give defense evidence to prosecutor and to hear motions such as quashing a confession or compelling a witness to appear or other pre-trial matters
-trial
-if found guilty by jury then there are hearings to present post-trial motions for a new trial or for the judge to declare the person "not guilty not-with-standing-the-verdict" which are routinely denied
-post trial hearings include orders to have a presentence investigation from the probation department to give the judge more information about the person to use in sentencing - good and bad stuff
-sentencing hearing where the judge hears factors in mitigation and aggravation (good and bad stuff about the person) and he considers the presentencing report. Then the judge issues a sentence and orders it executed
-then the now convicted person is sent to prison

Extradiction occurs only after sentencing

A friend of mine has been at cook county for a few months the one on California in Chicago. When are visiting days and hours?

Each jail unit has one visiting day per week. You can find out his jail unit by putting his name and birthdate into the inmate search section of the Sheriff's web site: http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/doc/doc_main.html under "inmate search" The visiting hrs are 9 am to 9 pm but get there before 8:30 pm. Also at shift change and an hour around it they don't let you see the inmates - essentially 2 pm to 4 pm so don't go at that time.

The web site also tells you the visiting rules, what you can mail to the detainee,and on what day each jail unit has visiting.

Thank you for the quick response. I was under the impression it was only business days. My boyfriend left the 3k he had on him with his attorney. He said he put it in some type of account and I have to meet with him @ the jail to get it. If I can get the money from the lawyer at a separate meeting, does the attorney still need to be there when I bail my bf out? I have a funny feeling this guy doesn't want to be bothered since we initially discussed taking care of this Monday because I didn't think I could come up with the cash until then.

Something sounds fishy. If the lawyer put it in a separate account this is called a retainer. This likely is the attorney's fee and NOT the bail money. You need to find out how much is the bail and then gather 10 % of that to pay the bond to get him out of jail. If bail is $10,000, then bond is $1,000 to walk. You can pay cash or credit card. The attorney is NOT involved in paying a bond. Attorneys are almost NEVER there to help bond someone out. They legally are NOT allowed to use their own money to bond out a client. You can bond someone out 7 days per week. You need to clarify with the boyfriend if the money he gave the attorney was his fee. If he had $3,000 on him, he could have kept it with him - the jail would have confiscated it and put it in a commissary fund, which the detainee can use to post bond. You need to talk to your boyfriend and the attorney and clarify this.

boyfriend had court in skokie today and they set bail. he was unable to pay full amount so his lawyer contacted me saying he was taken into custody and being held @ 26th and california. i have not gotten any more info from the lawyer since the a.m. charge is a felony dui. i have had no luck getting any info on my boyfriend(no one picks up the phone) and records office says he probably wasn't booked yet since a search turned up nothing. what is the process for bailing him out and how long does it usually take? also, does the jail observe good friday and halt bond proceedings?

You can bond him out any day 9 am to 9 pm 7 days a week including holidays. You bond him out by going to the big white gate just south of 2650 S. California (the court services building just south of the court building on 26

If someone is to extradited from one county to another does it normally take a long time. Is there a time limit in which they have in order to pick up someone for extradition.

Yes there is a time limit. I think the other jurisdiction has 30 days to pick him up. (I may be wrong and it could be 60, but I haven't had time to look it up in the statutes). If they don't pick him up, then the jail has to release him.