Adams County, Illinois — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

Adams County Jail

Operated byAdams County Sheriff
Jail address537 Vermont Street, Quincy, IL 62301 (county site); IDOC 2025 report gives 521 Vermont St.
Beds (county site)192 beds in eight pods, plus a separate work release section
Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)194 (146 male, 48 female)
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)106
Opened2020
Communications vendorCTEL/CPC (inmatesales.com), per visiting page
Jail AdministratorBrian Curran — Jail Administrator (county site; same name in IDOC 2025 report)

Source: Adams County Jail page · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

6/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✓PREA audits
✓Independent inspection
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Adams County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year built2020 (opened, per county site and IDOC 2025)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds192 (county site); rated capacity 194 (IDOC 2025)

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Sheriff Tony (Anthony) Grootens

Runs the jailYes — county site calls the sheriff the Administrator of the County Jail
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Office address535 Vermont St, Quincy, IL 62301

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: Adams County Sheriff & Jail page · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

Illinois circuit judges are elected on a partisan ballot and then stand for retention every six years (60% yes needed); associate judges are appointed by the circuit judges. They are state judicial officers, not county officials. Since 18 September 2023 Illinois has no cash bail — judges decide pretrial release or detention at a hearing.

Adams County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20

The County Board

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and is the warden of the jail by state law (55 ILCS 5/3-15003).
NoteHome page lists Adams County Board meetings; no agenda/minutes URL could be opened (agenda center returned 403).
The boardAdams County Board
Where the jail money is decidedNot found

Notes on the record

Jail page posts a daily population sheet (roster with charges and bond), PREA annual reports for 2025 and 2026, a PREA facility audit report, and the county's copy of the 2025 IDOC inspection report.
Roster document opened was dated 29 July 2026 and listed 143 records.
Bond guidance: bond can be posted by phone (1-800-352-9870, code 1008) or in person at the Circuit Clerk's Office, or after hours at the QPD entrance with a $15 fee.
Only fee rate published is electronic home detention: $15 a day ($105 weekly) plus $105 installation. Remote video visits described only as 'a minimal fee'; phone/commissary rates not listed.
No county budget, deaths-in-custody record or jail contracts found; several adamscountyil.gov pages returned 403.
An older county page (co.adams.il.us) still names a former sheriff and a 100-bed courthouse jail; it was not used.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 15 May 2025: rated capacity 194, population 106 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Adams County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the county board members who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered