Division 11 Cook County Jail: Visits, Calls, Mail, and Programs

Division 11 is the 640,000-square-foot medium-security men’s building inside the Cook County Jail complex in Chicago, and if someone you know was just booked in Cook County, Division 11 is one of the most likely places they will be housed while their case moves through court. The building can hold up to 1,536 men and sits on the jail campus at 3015 S. California Blvd.¹ Most people inside are pretrial detainees waiting for their cases to be resolved.

What Division 11 Is

Division 11 opened in 1995 and is built around a central core with four housing pods. Inside the pods are 32 tiers of mostly double-occupancy cells, totaling 764 double cells and 4 single cells. Movement and locking are run from a centralized touch-screen security system.²¹

Although it is classified as a medium-security building, Division 11 houses men at every security level: minimum, medium, and maximum. Classification staff assign a security level during intake based on the charges, criminal history, and any safety concerns, and that assignment is what drives the housing decision.³ Division 11 is a men’s building; women are housed elsewhere on the campus.

Finding Someone Housed in Division 11

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office runs an online Individual in Custody Locator. You can search by the person’s full first and last name, or by their booking number entered without hyphens. The results show the division they are housed in, their booking number, and their next court date.⁴

It can take several hours after an arrest for a person to appear in the locator, because booking has to be completed first. If your search comes up empty right after an arrest, wait and try again later the same day.

What Happens Right After Arrest

During intake, staff run medical and mental health screenings and classification personnel assign the security level that determines housing. Some people are placed in protective custody or flagged as high-risk movement.³

Personal property is collected. The jail will hold U.S. currency, clothing, credit and debit cards whose names match the person’s ID, transit cards, government-issued IDs, one plain wedding band, personal keys, prescription eyeglasses, prescription medications, soft-cover religious texts, and legal documents. Anything else is either released to a family member or disposed of.³

Once intake finishes, the person gets 15 minutes of free phone calls, local or long-distance, to reach family or an attorney.³ That brief window is often the first contact you will get. A first court appearance, formerly called bond court, happens within 48 hours of arrest. The judge reviews the charges and sets conditions of release, which may include electronic monitoring, a cash bond, or detention without bond for certain serious offenses.⁵

Visiting Someone in Division 11

You cannot just show up. Visits require advance approval, and you have to submit a visitor application for each specific person you want to visit. Applications take about seven business days to process. To check your approval status, call the Visitor Information Unit at 773-674-8225.⁶ Once approved, you can visit once per week during that person’s scheduled visiting days and times.

In-person visits are scheduled through the online system at dvv.ccsheriff.org. Every visitor must bring current, valid photo identification showing their address and matching the ID used on the application. A state ID, driver’s license, passport, or other government-issued ID is accepted.⁷

A few rules trip up first-time visitors:

Dress code. No short skirts, low-cut tops, sleeveless shirts, sheer clothing, exposed midriffs, or anything displaying gang symbols. Pants must be worn at the waist.
Minors. Anyone 17 or younger must be accompanied by an approved parent or guardian who is visiting the same person. High-school-age minors need a state ID or school photo ID.
Belongings. Leave almost everything in the car. Keys and ID can come in; paper and other items cannot.
Behavior. Loud, disruptive, or argumentative behavior and profanity end the visit immediately. You cannot communicate with anyone other than the person you are there to see.

All visitors pass through scanning devices and may be pat-searched. If staff have reasonable suspicion of contraband, the visit can be denied.⁷

Phone Calls From Inside

After the 15 free intake minutes, phone service runs through GTL (now Viapath). Calls are outgoing only; there is no way to call in to someone at the jail. Domestic calls are $0.05 per minute, whether local, in-state, or out-of-state. Calls to Mexico and Canada are $0.08 per minute, and other international calls are $0.13 per minute.⁸

Calls are recorded. Attorneys who need unrecorded calls with a client have to email ccso.legalvisit@ccsheriff.org to register the phone number as non-recordable. To block an individual in custody from calling your number, GTL customer service is 1-866-516-0115.⁸

Mail and Money

Letters go through the U.S. Postal Service and must be addressed with the person’s full name, their booking number, and the jail’s central mailing address: 2700 S. California Ave., Chicago, IL 60608. Mail for people housed in Division 11 goes to that central address even though Division 11 has a different street number on the campus.⁹

You can also deposit funds into the person’s trust fund account, which they use for commissary and other approved items. Deposits are handled through the Sheriff’s Office website, and transaction fees apply depending on deposit method and amount.¹⁰

Programs Available Inside

Division 11 houses Recipe for Change, a culinary training program founded by Chef Bruno Abate in 2014. An industrial kitchen was built inside the division where participants take cooking classes and earn food-handling certifications they can use after release. Over the program’s first decade, about 5,000 men and women have participated, and roughly 500 completed the program and graduated before release. It has since expanded to include workforce development, catering, and music and art workshops.¹¹ Access to programming across the jail depends on classification level, housing assignment, and capacity.¹

1
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Divisions of Jail
2
Illinois Department of Corrections. Cook County Jail Inspection Report
3
Cook County Department of Corrections. Inmate Information Handbook
4
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Individual in Custody Locator Search
5
Cook County Public Defender. First Appearance Court Information
6
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. FAQ for Individual in Custody Locator
7
Cook County Department of Corrections. Cook County Individual in Custody Visitation
8
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. GTL Inmate Communications
9
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. How to Send Mail to an Individual in Custody
10
Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Individual in Custody Trust Account
11
Chicago Catholic. Chef’s Culinary Program Changes Lives in Cook County Jail