Chicago jail’s problems cited

A federal investigation of Chicago’s Cook County jail has uncovered serious sanitation and medical care problems, as well as violence against prisoners who clashed with guards or failed to follow commands.

Among the problems cited by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. attorney’s office: old or mentally ill inmates struck by guards for dressing too slowly and inmates burning milk cartons to heat food in their cells.

Three inmates committed suicide in the first four months of 2008 alone, and others have died because of inadequate medical care, according to the report, released Thursday.