Cook County Jail Correctional Officers aid in prisoner escape in effort to help Sheriff candidate

God bless Chicago politics.

Chicago Police tipped a Cook County Jail captain on Saturday that inmate Michael McIntosh was planning an escape, but McIntosh and five others still managed to break out of their maximum-security tier just hours later, officials said.

The jail captain who took the call from Chicago Police appears to have acted properly in relaying the tip to the Special Operations Response Team that guards the tier where McIntosh and the others were held, said Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for Sheriff Michael Sheahan.

Investigators are trying to figure out what actions, if any, were taken after the captain relayed the tip to the SORT unit, Cunningham said.

On Tuesday, six correctional officers were suspended with pay because they are subjects of the sheriff's internal investigation of Saturday's jail break, Cunningham said.

Sources said one of those guards, a 36-year-old ex-Marine, has admitted he helped the inmates escape to give a political boost to a former jail supervisor, Richard Remus, who is running for Sheahan's post in the March 21 Democratic primary.

Two more have been charged in the jailbreak. The Sun-Times has details of the escape here.