The Detention Center
DeWitt County Jail
- Operated byDeWitt County Sheriff's Office
- Jail address101 W. Washington St., Clinton, IL 61727
- Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)86 (80 male, 6 female)
- Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)6
- Year built (IDOC 2025)1994
- VisitationIn-person Thu/Sat; video visits via vendor (sheriff's jail page)
- Jail AdministratorMisty Vaughn — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 inspection report
Source: DeWitt County Sheriff — Jail · checked 2026-09-20
Transparency rating
1/10Closed- ✓The jail is named
- ✗Who is in custody — not published
- ✗Beds and daily population — not published
- ✗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 built1994 (IDOC 2025 report)
- Original costNot found
- Paid for byNot found
- Beds86 rated (IDOC 2025 report)
Since then
- Not found
The Sheriff
Sheriff Mike Walker
- Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the DeWitt County Jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
- How the office is filledElected, four-year term
- First elected2018 (per sheriff's About page)
- Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
- Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
- Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail
Source: DeWitt County Sheriff — About · 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.
De Witt 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 website links a County Board page and an agendas/minutes page.
- The boardDeWitt County Board →
- Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →
Notes on the record
- Sheriff's jail page names the jail, gives visitation, mail and phone-vendor contact, but no roster, rates, bond guidance or PREA information.
- County budgets FY2020-FY2026 are listed at dewittcountyil.gov/government/transparency/budgets_and_audits.php, but the PDF links could not be opened (404), so the sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
- dewittcountyill.com (linked from the sheriff's site) could not be fetched; the county's current site is dewittcountyil.gov.
- No 2025 IDOC report at 'De%20Witt%20County.pdf'; found under 'DeWitt%20County.pdf'.
- State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 19 Aug 2025: rated capacity 86, population 6 that day; noncompliances: staffing (one officer on the 6 p.m.-6 a.m. shift; standard requires the jail be "staffed with sufficient number of jail officers"), observation checks (52 of 96 timely; standard requires "personal observation ... at least once every 30 minutes"), and undergarments not issued at intake ("necessary clothing").
These three offices decide who sits in a cell in De Witt 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