Through an analysis of a federal consent decree and media representation related to overcrowding within the largest single-site jail facility in the United States, the incarceration binge of the 1990's is explored at the local level in The Culture of Urban Control: Jail Overcrowding in the Crime Control Era. Analysis of jail conditions, expansion, the inmate experience and changing correctional populations provide a narrative of the culture of control within the Cook County Department of Corrections in Chicago, Illinois.