Chicago Tribune
COOK COUNTY, Ill. — Eleven Cook County correctional officers and seven county jail inmates were injured Tuesday morning in a gang-related fight involving more than 40 inmates in a yard at the Cook County Jail, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said.
The brawl broke out about 9:15 a.m. outside Division 1, a maximum security wing in the sprawling jail complex near 26th Street and California Avenue, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
“It was essentially a fistfight that grew to involve some 40 inmates,” Mateck said, adding that about 180 inmates who were outside at the time were not involved in the fight.
Of the seven inmates who were injured, five were treated on the scene and two were taken to Stroger Hospital, she said. While trying to break up the fight, which did not involve weapons, the officers suffered minor injuries. Most were treated at the scene or in the jail’s hospital, Mateck said.
Jail officials and the sheriff’s office were investigating the fight.
Copyright 2008 Chicago Tribune