Hoax - Obama's Cook County Correctional Center

Outline
Message that features a series of photographs depicting a luxuriously appointed prison claims that the pictures show the Cook County Correctional Center in Chicago, Illinois, a project brought to fruition by Barack Obama.



Brief Analysis
The photographs are genuine and they do depict a prison. However, the prison is located in Austria, not the United States as claimed in the message and it was built back in 2005. And, the project has no connection whatsoever to Barack Obama. There is no Cook County prison facility like the one shown in these photographs. The same images have circulated in entirely different contexts for several years.

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Last updated: October 8, 2012
First published: October 8, 2012
Article written by Brett M. Christensen
About Brett Christensen and Hoax-Slayer

Example

Detailed Analysis
This widely circulated message claims that attached photographs of a sleek modern building depict a new prison located in the United States. The message features images of the building's exterior as well as showing the high quality accommodation and sporting facilities inside. According to the message, the facility in the photographs is the Cook County Correctional Center located in Chicago, Illinois. The message claims that funding to build the - obviously expensive - facility was arranged by Barack Obama. The message decries this apparent waste of funds and also claims that there are plans to move terrorists previously incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay to the new prison.

The photographs are genuine and they do indeed depict a prison. But the description that comes with the photographs is nonsense through and through.

Here are the facts:

• The prison is located in the European nation of Austria, not the United States as claimed in the message. The photographs show the Justice and Detention Centre in Leoben, Austria. The building was completed in 2005 and comprises court facilities as well as a penitentiary. Modern architecture website MIMOA notes:

  Architect Josef Hohensinn did not find it all that far-fetched to take home comfort into consideration in his penitentiary design for the new Justice and Detention Centre in Leoben. Façades, layout of spaces, art concept - everything meets the highest Austrian standards.
  

  "Lucky" Austrian prisoners enjoy not only clean and modern accommodation but can also move freely among their cells and the communal spaces in their designated areas. There are also outdoor courtyards where inmates can walk and sit in the fresh air.

• Quite obviously, Barack Obama had no involvement whatsoever in the funding or construction of this or any other Austrian prison project.
  
  
• There is no "new" correctional center in Cook County that even remotely resembles the facility shown in the above images. The real Cook County Jail is an institution far more functional and foreboding than the attractive center shown in the above images.
  
  
• The very same set of pictures has circulated in other contexts since at least 2008. An earlier Hoax-Slayer article discusses another version of the message that falsely claimed that the prison was located in the United Kingdom.

Thus, it seems clear that someone with an axe to grind has simply taken a set of pictures and made up a story to go with them in a rather lame attempt to discredit Barack Obama. Spreading obvious lies about a political leader - regardless of your opinions about his or her ability or lack thereof - is likely to be entirely counterproductive to your cause and could greatly damage your credibility.

More information (Google translated from original German) about the prison is available on the Hohensinn Architektur website.

References
Justice and Detention Centre
Jail to hire 600 more officers and overhaul healthcarel
projekt: justizzentrum leoben

Last updated: October 8, 2012
First published: October 8, 2012
Article written by Brett M. Christensen
About Brett Christensen and Hoax-Slayer