A Cook County Sheriff's police car patrols the exterior of the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, January 12, 2016. The Cook County Jail in Chicago -- the biggest single-site jail in the United States -- was placed on lockdown on Tuesday after staffing dropped below normal levels, said Cook County Sheriff's spokesman Ben Breit. REUTERS/Jim Young - RTX22355
More than 200 jail officers in Cook County, Ill. called out sick Sunday, forcing the facility to be placed on lockdown, officials said.
The Cook County Sheriff's office said that 32 percent of the officers scheduled to work the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift did not appear. The office said that 86 of the officers said they were sick. Another 126 cited the federal Family Medical Leave Act, which protects employees' absences due to personal and family illnesses and pregnancy, among other reasons.
"The extraordinary number of call offs puts additional pressure on the men and women of the Sheriff’s office who come to work as scheduled," the office said in a statement.
The absences did not affect visits to the jail, but the facility was put on lockdown. Only "essential movement" was allowed.
This is not the first time the jail has had issues with absences on holidays. Last year, 420 officers called out sick on Mother's Day, with more than 520 doing so on Father's Day and the following Monday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Nearly 640 officers called in sick on May 2, 2015, a date that coincided with a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
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