Cook County Jail reality show premiere
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who attracts headlines like bees to honey, is at it again!
What previous sheriffs turned down in the past, he has given a thumbs up: opening the doors of Cook County Jail for an in-depth peek inside.
• Translation: A three-part reality TV series delving into the innards of the nation's largest single-site jail premieres on the Discovery Channel on Thursday.
• To wit: "For decades, Cook County Jail officials have shut out the world and the media as tightly as they locked down inmates, unwilling to reveal the jail's innermost workings," according to the show's producers.
• Upshot: "We felt strongly about opening the doors of our facility in a way that hasn't been done before," said Dart, who permitted a film crew to roam the jail for 10 weeks this summer with unprecedented access to jail cells.
• Backshot: The 96-acre barbed-wire fortress contains nearly 10,000 inmates, many accused of society's worst crimes, and 3,000 correctional officers. "We want people to see inside, to know what it's like for inmates and staff, and to get an idea of the challenges we face every day," Dart said.
• Potshots: The video captures inmates using toothpaste caps to jam door locks; holding milk cartons to light bulbs to create cell fires; throwing feces and urine on correctional officers while pretending to be hurt, and how prisoners fashion knives out of almost anything.
• Scary shot: The ratio of three inmates for every correctional officer is one of the worst in the nation, a jail spokesman said. "And until a prisoner gets processed, he could be sitting in a holding cell next to a businessman or a gang-banging serial killer," the spokesman said.
Watch for Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the U.S. House's chief deputy Democratic whip, to endorse U.S. Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias onSunday at a news conference at Flashpoint Academy in the Loop.
• Sidenote: Giannoulias and Schakowsky, who considered running for the Senate seat, got to know each other well while campaigning for President Obama and in their efforts to keep the Hartmarx clothing company open.
Uber TV dad Jon Gosselin vented his ire in a lawsuit filed against TLC, the network that sued him for allegedly breaking his contract.
• Quoth the lawsuit: "The plaintiff's hands are so sullied, polluted and infected with wrongdoing, deception, heavy handedness, unconscionability and disregard for the public's interest that the only resolve that justice should mandate is the plaintiff's infected hands be amputated."
Oprah Winfrey's ears should be burning!
Longtime Oprah beau Stedman Graham had this to say about his relationship with the TV tsarina to the Scripps Howard News Service:
"You know, it is what it is and that's fine. I'm perfectly happy to be with a woman who reaches 20 million people a day in 15 countries and who helps women all over the world and who is, you know, a genius. And who has a strong sense of character. Who is a strong communicator. Who is a wonderful, warm person and also who is a great, great cook. And who is dynamic and has her own mind. So I'm perfectly happy being with someone like that."
Author/former newspaper reporter Charlie Madigan, who just published Destiny Calling: How the People Elected Barack Obama, on Sunday will address the Democratic Club of Evanston, which will celebrate the anniversary of President Obama's election . . . Sunday's birthdays: Sam Waterston, 69; Ed Asner, 80; Petula Clark, 77, and Daniel Barenboim, ageless . . . Monday's birthdays: Lisa Bonet, 42; Oksana Baiul, 32; Martha Plimpton, 39; Marg Helgenberger, 51.