The Detention Center
Clay County Jail
- Operated byClay County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address300 E. Broadway St, Louisville, IL 62858 (IDOC 2025)
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)17
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)5
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1975
- Name sourceFacility name from the IDOC 2025 report; the county page says only "the county jail"
Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
The Building
You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.
- Year built1975 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds17 rated (IDOC 2025)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Andy Myers
- Runs the jailYes — county page: "The Sheriff is also warden of the county jail"
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- Staff (county page)1 Chief Deputy, 8 Patrol Deputies, 1 Corrections Sergeant, 5 Jailers, 1 Courthouse Security Officer, 5 part-time Bailiffs
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: Clay County, Illinois — Sheriff · 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.
Clay 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).
- NoteCounty board page (claycountyillinois.org/county-board/) returned 403; the county home page gives no governing-body name.
- The boardNot found
- Where the jail money is decidedNot found
Notes on the record
- The county's sheriff page names Sheriff Andy Myers and describes the jail generically; no facility name, roster, capacity, fees or bond guidance.
- The separate sheriff site (sheriff.claycounty.illinois.gov) was blocked by robots.txt and could not be read.
- Seat: the sheriff's office address is Louisville; no county page opened states the county seat explicitly.
- IDOC 2025 report lists "Administrative Assistant Robert Sturm" in the jail administrator field; not treated as a separate jail administrator here.
- Not scored: The separate sheriff site was blocked by robots.txt; only a generic county sheriff page was read. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 21 August 2025: rated capacity 17, population 5 that day; noncompliances: personnel/supervision (701.20, 701.130, 701.140) — the dispatcher is not primarily assigned to correctional duties, staffing to be reviewed; supervisory checks (701.130) — 199 of 209 timely (95%).
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Clay 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