The Detention Center
Bureau County Jail
- Operated byBureau County Sheriff
- Jail address800 Ace Road, Princeton, IL 61356
- Beds (county site)115
- Opened2023
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)115 (80 male, 35 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)17
- VisitsVideo visits via cidnet.net in 15-minute increments; in-person hours also listed
- JuvenilesNot housed
- Jail AdministratorRebecca Gosch — Jail administrator per IDOC 2025 report; not named on county pages opened
Source: Bureau County Jail page · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
2/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✓Beds and daily population
- ✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
- ✗Deaths in custody — not published
- ✗PREA audits — not published
- ✗Independent inspection — not published
- ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
- ✗How to post bond — not published
- ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built2023 (opened, per county site and IDOC 2025)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds115
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff James Reed
- Runs the jailYes — Bureau County Jail is operated by the Sheriff's Department
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term (sheriff since 2014 per county page)
- Office address800 Ace Road, Princeton, IL 61356
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Bureau County — Sheriff's Office · 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.
Bureau County Circuit Court
- Not found
- 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).
- Note18-member board; meets second Tuesday monthly. Agendas and minutes on Granicus/IQM2 portal (latest regular meeting 8 Sep 2026). No budget document found.
- The boardBureau County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Jail page names the jail, gives 115 beds and 2023 opening, and describes video visitation, the H.O.P.E. program and deposit vendors (jailatm.com, courtmoney.com) without rates.
- Text messaging mentioned with per-message charges but no rate stated.
- No roster, bond/pretrial guidance, PREA, budget, contracts or fee rates found on the county site.
- Population on the March 2025 inspection day was 17 against 115 rated beds.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 18 Mar 2025: rated capacity 115, population 17 that day; noncompliances: none recorded.
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Bureau 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