Activists, religious leaders and survivors of people who have died in the Cook County Jail gathered Wednesday night to call on Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to increase access to medical care and overdose reversing supplies for those behind bars as they remembered 16 people who died in custody in 2023.

       They also called for compassion toward people detained and awaiting trial.

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       “Every person back there is a human being, and they have loved ones like us,” Cassandra Greer Lee said, nodding across the street to one of the buildings in the jail complex on South California Avenue.