Inside Cook County Jail: New 2025 Investigation Exposes a Hidden Network of Nepotism and Corruption

‍A SYSTEM GOVERNED BY CONNECTION, NOT COMPETENCE

Cook County Jail does not function on merit.

It does not function on experience, skill, or seniority.

And it certainly does not function on fairness.

Instead, the largest single-site correctional institution in the entire country functions on a quieter force—one so pervasive, so consistent, and so entrenched that every officer in the building recognizes it on sight:

Nepotism.

Not the subtle, whispered kind.

The structural, generational, policy-defying kind.

This is not speculation.

This is not rumor.

This is a County with a documented history of:

•      patronage hiring,

•      political favoritism,

•      nepotistic placements,

•      ghost payrolling,

•      internal retaliation, and

•      employment oversight interventions.

This is a County so steeped in hiring abuses that federal, county, and academic institutions have repeatedly studied, monitored, and condemned the behavior.

This article places that reality into the context of what officers see daily inside Cook County Jail.

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THE CONNECTED CLASS: THE SHADOW ARCHITECTURE OF THE JAIL

Inside the jail, careers do not rise according to the CBA.

They rise according to:

•      who you are related to,

•      who you are dating,

•      who your parent is,

•      who your partner is,

•      who you know in administration, and

•      who benefits from your existence.

These individuals are not limited by the transfer process.

They are not boxed in by assignment protocols.

They are not pushed into dangerous tiers.

They do not face the same disciplinary framework.

They form what officers refer to - quietly, and carefully - as the Connected Class.

Sometimes described internally as “the juice” - a shorthand for informal power and preferential treatment derived from relationships, not rank.

Not insiders.

Not administrators.

A protected class.

The following examples are anonymized for publication, but every officer inside the jail knows exactly who is being referenced.

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THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S DAUGHTER - A JOB NO ONE CAN DEFINE

Officers have long asked the same simple questions:

•      What is her job?

•      What is her assignment?

•      What exactly does she do?

•      Why does FOIA refuse to identify her role, instead charging C4 and delaying for months when specific job information is requested?

•      Why is her employment treated like a state secret?

The answer is obvious: she holds a position created for her, not for the jail.

In a system where every officer is micromanaged, documented, scrutinized, and held accountable - her job is a ghost assignment.

A privilege.

And a warning of what the jail truly values.

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THE DIRECTOR’S HUSBAND - ASCENDING AT A SPEED NO ONE ELSE CAN REACH

Then there is the director whose husband has risen faster than any other employee in recent memory:

•      he started quietly,

•      then jumped rank after rank,

•      then became a superintendent,

•      and now stands one step away from becoming a director.

His ascension defies institutional logic unless one understands the actual mechanics of Cook County: positions bend around relationships.

His rise is not an outlier.

It is a template.

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THE DIRECTOR’S SON - AN EMPLOYEE WHOSE ROLE CANNOT BE TRACED

Another director’s son works inside the jail in a capacity that cannot be found through:

•      FOIA,

•      HR logs,

•      assignment rosters, or

•      official documentation.

His job exists only through internal rumor and occasional sightings.

This is not a clerical oversight.

It is a systemic pattern - roles that appear only for those whose last names carry power.

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HOW THE CONNECTED CLASS AVOIDS THE WORST POSTS

No one in the Connected Class works in:

•      Division 6,

•      Division 9,

•      RTU,

•      high-tension or high-assault tiers, or

•      anywhere staffing crises make the job lethal.

They never work the worst divisions—because the jail is engineered so they never have to.

Meanwhile, most officers:

•      absorb assaults,

•      are forced to cross-watch illegally,

•      are mandated every single day, and

•      face dangerous understaffing daily.

The Connected Class floats above it all.

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“ADMINISTRATIVE MOVES” - THE QUIET LANGUAGE OF FAVORITISM

Inside the jail, there is one phrase every officer understands:

administrative move.

An administrative move is:

•      a position that never appears on the bid list,

•      an assignment no one can apply for,

•      a job created on demand for one specific person,

•      a form of unchallenged privilege, and

•      the primary vehicle of nepotism.

Connected individuals bypass tiers, avoid danger, and ascend into cushioned roles through these invisible moves.

Administrative moves are not policy.

They are inheritance.

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PROMOTIONS: HOW THE CONNECTED CLASS LEAPS WHILE OTHERS CRAWL

Look at the officers who became sergeant within their first few years.

Then ask:

Who are they connected to?

The answer is consistent.

These are early-career sergeants who:

•      never endured the hardest divisions,

•      never accumulated the hours everyone else had to,

•      never faced the disciplinary weaponization others suffer, and

•      never were forced to cross-watch against policy.

They rose because their last names were more powerful than their résumés.

Public-sector employment scholars and ethics bodies have repeatedly warned that rapid rank ascension without transparent, objective criteria is a classic indicator of patronage-based systems, particularly in law enforcement agencies with weak internal oversight.

And they are already positioned to become lieutenants.

The pattern is perfect.

And perfectly predictable.

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IMMUNITY FROM DISCIPLINE - A PRIVILEGE ONLY THE CONNECTED CLASS ENJOYS

The Connected Class:

•      is not written up,

•      is not investigated,

•      is not OPR’d,

•      is not targeted,

•      is not mandated,

•      is not punished for mistakes, and

•      is not held to the disciplinary standards everyone else faces.

Their failures become “coaching opportunities.”

Their misconduct becomes paperwork that disappears.

Meanwhile, officers who:

•      refuse illegal cross-watching,

•      file grievances,

•      report corruption,

•      fight for fairness,

•      seek transparency, or

•      simply speak up—

are hit with:

•      retaliatory write-ups,

•      fabricated allegations,

•      OPR investigations,

•      hostile assignments,

•      denied promotions, and

•      career sabotage.

This is a system where loyalty to leadership is valued more than service to the public.

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THE UNION’S ROLE - QUIET, CONSISTENT COMPLICITY

The union does not fix this system because the union benefits from it.

Officers have watched:

•      union favorites slide into administrative roles without bidding,

•      union-connected individuals escape divisions they dislike,

•      romantic partners receive consistent assignment preferences,

•      grievances ignored when the subject is connected to leadership, and

•      favoritism reproduced through union influence.

The union cannot claim ignorance.

Silence, in this system, is participation.

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THIS IS WHY COOK COUNTY CANNOT RETAIN OFFICERS

The County blames the retention crisis on:

•      “lack of interest in law enforcement,”

•      “changing times,” and

•      “staffing challenges.”

No.

Cook County cannot retain officers because:

•      promotions are predetermined,

•      assignments are rigged,

•      discipline is weaponized,

•      FOIA transparency is blocked,

•      administrative moves bypass policy, and

•      the Connected Class never faces the reality of the job.

Officers leave because the system is built to elevate the least qualified and punish the most dedicated.

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THIS IS NOT NEW - SOURCES PROVE THIS IS SYSTEMIC, DOCUMENTED, AND HISTORIC

This article does not stand alone.

The following sources document:

•      ghost payrolling,

•      nepotistic hiring,

•      misuse of positions,

•      retaliation against whistleblowers,

•      Shakman-related patronage oversight,

•      ethics violations tied to family hiring, and

•      statewide legal action against nepotism.

This article is not speculation.

It is part of a documented pattern that spans journalism, government oversight, academic analysis, ethics regulation, and state law.

This is a system built on nepotism - and protected by silence.

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THE TRUTH DOES NOT NEED NAMES

Every officer reading this:

•      knows the executive director’s daughter,

•      knows the director’s husband,

•      knows the director’s son,

•      knows the administrative favorites,

•      knows the fast-track promotions,

•      knows who never works the worst posts,

•      knows who never gets written up,

•      knows who gets moved into comfortable positions, and

•      knows who gets targeted for speaking truth.

This article does not expose individuals.

It exposes the design that protects them.

A system governed by proximity rather than accountability will always sacrifice those who stand outside its inner circles.

And Cook County Jail has institutionalized that sacrifice.

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^Sources

   1.    South Side Weekly. Lawsuit Accuses Sheriff of Retaliation Over Fraud Investigation.

^{https://southsideweekly.com/lawsuit-accuses-sheriff-of-retaliation-over-fraud-investigation/}

   2.    CWBChicago. In federal lawsuit, ‘demoted’ investigator claims she found ghost payrolling, COVID fraud, nepotism and more at the sheriff’s office.

^{https://cwbchicago.com/2025/01/in-federal-lawsuit-demoted-investigator-claims-she-found-ghost-payrolling-covid-fraud-nepotism-and-more-at-the-sheriffs-office.html}

   3.    Cook County Government. Shakman Compliance Office.

^{https://www.cookcountyil.gov/service/shakman-compliance-office}

   4.    Illinois Policy. Patronage oversight ends for Cook County Assessor’s Office.

^{https://www.illinoispolicy.org/patronage-oversight-ends-for-cook-county-assessors-office/}

   5.    Chicago Sun-Times. Don’t weaken enforcement of anti-patronage Shakman.

^{https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/7/6/23784933/shakman-decrees-patronage-hiring-karen-yarbrough-cook-county-cerk-good-government-editorial}

   6.    Cook County Board of Ethics. Hiring or Employing of Family Members as County Employees Undermines the … (Notice of Determination).

^{https://opendocs.cookcountyil.gov/ethics/notices-determination/13-I-0001-Notice-of-Determination.pdf}

   7.    Cook County Sheriff’s Office. SEAM – Introduction (Updated 2025).

^{https://cookcountysheriffil.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SEAM-Introduction-updated-4-1-25.pdf}

   8.    Harvard Law Review. Shakman v. Pritzker.

^{https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-136/shakman-v-pritzker/}

   9.    National Conference of State Legislatures. Nepotism Restrictions.

^{https://www.ncsl.org/ethics/nepotism-restrictions}

   10.    Illinois Governor’s Office. Executive Order 2018-12: To Eliminate Nepotism in State Government Hiring.

^{https://www.illinois.gov/government/executive-orders/executive-order-number-12.2018.html}

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^{© 2025 Cook County Corrections Coalition (C4). All Rights Reserved.}

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