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

The Detention Center

DuPage County Jail

Operated byDuPage County Sheriff's Office
Jail address501 N. County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187
Rated capacity (IDOC 2025)973 (860 male, 113 female)
Population on inspection day (IDOC 2025)543
Year built (IDOC 2025)1983; addition (Building A) 1995
CommissaryCounty bid 25-037-SHF (opened 8 Jul 2025) sought a commissary contract for the jail, contract to begin Oct 2025
Jail AdministratorMark Garcia — Jail administrator named in IDOC 2025 inspection report

Source: DuPage County — Commissary Services for DuPage County Jail (bid) · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

Not scored. DuPage County's and its sheriff's own websites could not be reached or read in the session that produced this record, so their disclosures were never examined. This is a gap in the research, not a finding about the county.

The Building

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

Year built1983; addition 1995 (IDOC 2025 report)
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
Beds973 rated (IDOC 2025 report)

Since then

1995 addition (Building A), per IDOC 2025 report

The Sheriff

Sheriff James Mendrick

Runs the jailYes — sheriff is warden of the DuPage County Jail (55 ILCS 5/3-15003)
How the office is filledElected, four-year term
Name sourceIDOC 2025 inspection report (inspected 29 Oct 2025); the sheriff's own site could not be opened

Still needed

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

Source: IDOC 2025 jail inspection report · 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.

DuPage 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).
NoteCounty Board chair: Deborah A. Conroy. Meets 2nd and 4th Tuesdays; agendas and minutes on Legistar (linked from the county board page).
The boardDuPage County Board →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

The sheriff's site (dupagesheriff.org) blocks automated fetching (robots.txt), so its jail, roster, PREA, bond and fee pages could not be examined; the 'no' answers reflect the county site only.
County FY2025 and FY2026 Financial Plans are posted on dupagecounty.gov but were too large to open, so the sheriff/jail line could not be confirmed.
County posted an active 2025 bid (25-037-SHF) for jail commissary services; this is a solicitation, not a published contract.
Sheriff and jail administrator names come from the IDOC 2025 report, not a county page.
18th Judicial Circuit court site (dupagecourts.gov) could not be opened; no judges recorded.
Not scored: The sheriff's site was blocked by robots.txt, so its jail pages were never examined. Marking the rest 'not published' would claim more than was checked. Found published on the pages that did open: named.
State inspection/oversight: IDOC Jail and Detention Standards Unit, inspected 29 Oct 2025: rated capacity 973, population 543 that day; noncompliances: none recorded (recommendations only, on graffiti and detainee property).

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in DuPage 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