Illinois jail continues allowing detainees to vote in presidential elections, other local races

An Illinois jail continues to teach democracy behind bars, particularly by showing inmates and detainees how they can vote while incarcerated.

Nathaniel Carswell is one of many being temporarily held while not serving a sentence at Cook County Jail’s Division II, which still has barbed wire surrounding the property and the sound of doors getting locked behind them.

Carswell, like several other inmates, took a civics class offered at the facility, and now they’re voting in the 2024 presidential election.

“It’s just to advise you of what you can and can’t do and how your voice does matter,” Carswell told Fox 32. “And a lot of people don’t even know how to vote. So, this class is very educational.”

Marquis Tucker is another detainee at the facility who claimed that voting was about inserting his own voice into his community.

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“They probably think we just up in here working out and doing stuff to waste our time,” Tucker said. “But it’s a lot of well-informed guys… and we do a lot of watching news.”

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said detainees don’t just learn about the process of democracy, but they can also practice it — in the solitude and comfort of the chapel.

“We sit and talk a great deal about how we want people who get involved, the criminal justice system, to be reengaged in community,” Dart said. “We want them to get jobs and be engaged with their families. We talk about that all the time.”

“But what better way to really give someone a sense of ownership in their own community than you’re voting? I mean, you really you’re the one deciding who’s going to be your alderman, your state representative, the President of the United States. And that gives you a sense of ownership in your community,” Dart said.

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Cook County became the first jail in the country to set up polling stations inside confined walls during the 2020 elections. 

“We get a better turnout in people in the jail than people on the outside,” the sheriff said.

More than 50% of its registered detainees voted in a recent election, compared to just 36% in the city of Chicago. Dart said voting while incarcerated carries more weight for the prisoners.

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Tucker said that weight is the future of his family.

“I have two children. I just want the candidates to make it safe for my kids,” Tucker said.