Many accused murderers, rapists and robbers can leave their cells and cause mayhem among other inmates in Cook County's jail in the South Lawndale neighborhood, according to a joint investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association.
More than one in 10 of the maximum-security cells in Cook County's oldest jail are not secure, according to Sun-Times reporters Frank Main and Chris Fusco.
A Cook County sheriff's spot check about a year ago showed that 69 cell doors in the jail--more than 11 percent--were "found to be not closing properly, with the potential for being breached," records showed.
The investigation found at least 288 problems with jail doors in the 608-cell complex between February 2007 and May 2009.
The danger is not so much that inmates will escape the jail, but rather that they will leave their cells and start fights with other inmates, according to the article.
Officials said the doors have been fixed, but problems continue, Fusco and Main report.
In other muckraking news:
Pam Zekman of CBS 2 and the Better Government Association investigated where City of Chicago aldermen spend their annual $1.3 million "menu" funds. The article includes expenditures by all 50 aldermen for 2007 and 2008.
-- compiled by Jeff Kelly Lowenstein and Chris Danzig
