The Cook County Jail’s process for resolving administrative grievances against its staff became unavailable to a prisoner, in part, because it was “incomprehensible,” the Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday.
Gerald Hacker is essentially deaf, having no hearing in his left ear and only10% of his hearing in his right ear. So he didn’t hear a jail officer ordering him to return to his cell. When he did not comply, the officer shoved him, knocking him unconscious and Hacker awoke handcuffed to a medical bed.
When Hacker made an administrative grievance over the encounter, the jail told him it had taken the ...