VISITOR TRAPPED 31 HOURS IN COOK COUNTY JAIL

A man wanting to visit his son went through the wrong door in Chicago’s Cook County jail and was trapped inside an unused visiting room for 31 hours before breaking a sprinkler head which led firefighters to his ‘cell’

At 6 p.m. Saturday, a man entered Chicago’s Cook County jail to visit his son who had been locked up for 13 months while awaiting trial for a drug offense. His son had been moved to a different part of the jail. Being unfamiliar with the new location, the man went through an open door that closed behind him. He couldn’t get the door back open and found himself trapped in an unused high-security visiting room that had been undergoing some construction. No one heard him pounding on the locked door. Out of desperation he broke off a sprinkler head which led firefighters to find him at 1 a.m. Monday, some 31 hours after his ordeal began.

From the Chicago Tribune:

[According to Cara Smith, the jail’s executive director] His son, who has been there for about 13 months, had been moved to a different area, a tier for “workers” that the man wasn’t familiar with.

“He was told to proceed ahead and stay to the right to go to the visitor area,’’ Smith said. “He encountered a door that was propped open and he went in and the door shut behind him.’’

He was locked in the room, where people visit the “highest classification,’’ super-maximum security prisoners for 31 hours.

“There’s no reason to check on that room because it’s not used on the weekends,’’ Smith said. He was pounding on the concrete door but no one could hear him, she said. No prisoners were in the room or anywhere near him.

The room is a visiting area that contractors were working on, installing cameras, “incredibly, for better security, ‘’ Smith said.

The room contains three stools, and three glass partitions separating visitors from the prisoners.

“Brilliantly, he broke the sprinkler head off which alerted the fire department so they were able to identify where it was coming from and they went in and found him,” Smith said.

The man was taken to Rush University Medical Center where he received several stitches on one of his thumbs which he injured while breaking off the sprinkler head. Smith met him at the hospital at 3 a.m. and took him back to the jail parking lot so he could pick up his car.