The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is ending its decades-old electronic monitoring program, giving the Chief Judge’s Office sole responsibility for managing its cases.

The lawsuit is the latest indication that the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding, will target Chicago directly.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is seeking $10 million from state lawmakers to tackle what he calls in a recent report “A Firearm Regulation Crisis.” 

The student-led volunteer effort started years ago as an offshoot of a DePaul University program offering college credit classes at the jail on the city’s Southwest Side for students and detainees. 

Cook County Jail provides medications for opioid use disorder to incarcerated people. Where frustration comes from advocates — and local officials — is the limitations of the Illinois Department of Corrections’ medication programming in prisons.

Regardless of how long a detainee stays in jail, however, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said a state ID has consistently been at the “top of the list” of needs that those in jail reported to officials upon intake “because it unlocks everything else.”

Get an inside look at how a regional task force is working to apprehend carjackers across Chicago. 

“We’re doing all this work with people and mental illness and working with their individual issues, but then when they would leave us, they would go out to the community with minimal services,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. “And I said, OK, we will set up our own services office.”

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday said millions more dollars must be dedicated to helping police departments recover weapons from those who’ve had their FOID cards revoked.

Ramsy Sandoka, 40, has been charged with a felony count of aggravated possession of a stolen vehicle and misdemeanor counts of failure to keep recyclable purchase records, selling/purchasing catalytic converters and a violation of recycle metal law after police found more than 600 catalytic converters at his Worth Township home.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office this week released surveillance video of the September 2022 incident, which shows a man speaking to the officer and another guard before the officer, identified by sheriff’s office as 44-year-old Richard Smith, begins punching the man.

Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences retain the right to vote, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the U.S. Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and detainees, is one of the largest jails in the nation.

Guns classified by the state of Illinois as "assault weapons" have been banned since Jan. 11. That means that hundreds — perhaps thousands — of guns can no longer be legally sold in Illinois. Those who already own guns and ammunition covered by the ban can keep them; they must be registered with the state.

Illinois lawmakers are pressing forward with an attempt to ban certain firearms they describe as assault weapons, but gun rights advocates say it’s a fruitless effort that will be tossed by the courts.

There are now 533 confirmed monkeypox cases in Illinois. And one of those cases was confirmed last week in Cook County Jail. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office said the individual is believed to have contracted the virus in the community prior to being ordered into custody.

In the county’s electronic monitoring program administered by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office, defendants wear an ankle monitor equipped with GPS and cellular tower tracking technology. Some say the readings are not always accurate, leading to incorrect reports of violations.